On a map, Ménaka is just another village in northeastern Mali. On the ground, it is an epicenter of displacement, trade and insecurity, marked by the presence of armed groups and terrorist activity, including ISIS-affiliated groups, such as ISGS, operating in the region. Located in Mali’s tri-border area with Niger and Burkina Faso, it sits at the intersection of cross-border trade and conflict. Refugees continue arriving from Niger, families displaced from Mali's own Kidal region keep arriving too. Reaching it depends on an UNHAS flight that lands roughly once every two weeks, and even that isn't guaranteed.
Before humanitarian teams can set foot there, UNDSS colleagues in Mali have already worked out what the visit will look like. They identify which sites are safe enough to reach and how to fit a mission that would normally unfold over days into a single hour on the ground. For Anim Ngu-Muthi, UNDSS Mali’s Chief Security Adviser, that preparation is what makes a visit to Ménaka possible, where the security picture can shift within a few kilometres. That preparation was put into practice recently, when UNDSS supported a joint mission bringing the heads of five UN agencies to the region to assess the humanitarian needs and personally thank UN staff working there.
The delegation had one hour to see as much of Ménaka as possible and hear directly from refugees and IDPs, as well as UN personnel working and living there. The first stop was a meeting with the Governor of Ménaka, who described a state stretched thin and asked for continued support, including for the town's airstrip. Soon after, at a refugee and IDP site, the requests were simple: food, and education for children. "There's no break," Anim said of what she saw there, people already living in poverty, displaced again, and now dependent on aid that Ménaka's isolation makes hard to deliver.
Beyond the needs of displaced communities, the visit offered a closer look at what it takes to support UN operations from Ménaka. In the isolated town with 4 UNDSS personnel among 21 UN staff, meeting colleagues in person mattered too. "Being there in person really brings the situation into focus," Anim said after meeting the Ménaka team face to face. She pointed to mounting fuel costs and limited communications options as examples that contribute to complex operational challenges confronting the region, with no easy fix.
The visit fed directly into a 12-point security action plan, from early-warning indicators to airstrip advocacy. Some of that follow-through has already happened: since the visit, cargo, including medication, has started moving into Ménaka more regularly, one of what Anim calls the "quick wins," while harder fixes, like rehabilitating the runway, remain a longer haul. Under the Saving Lives Together framework, UNDSS continues coordinating with agencies, NGOs and state authorities across Mali, aiding access and adjusting recommendations as conditions shift.
In Ménaka, that ongoing work, day by day, is what keeps the door open for the next hour of humanitarian aid.