U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday appointed a Dutch former development minister as his special representative and head of the new peacekeeping mission for Mali. Bert Koenders, who was Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation from 2007 to 2010 and currently is the U.N. envoy to the Ivory Coast, will head the new 12,600-strong peacekeeping force, which is set to deploy on July 1. The creation of the force is subject to a Security Council review of the security situation in Mali next month.