Senegal’s army says it is standing by the country’s commitments to the UN’s peacekeeping mission in neighbouring Mali, after an opposition leader suggested it was withdrawing. The West African state is one of the biggest contributors to the MINUSMA force in Mali, which is facing an escalating jihadist insurgency. Ousmane Sonko, a fierce critic of President Macky Sall, said on Thursday that Senegal had only provided troops because it had been under pressure from France, the former colonial power. He made the attack after a Senegalese battalion based in Sevare, central Mali, began its rotation this week, according to MINUSMA.