2023-08-31 01:52:29
Thanks to its Russian ally, the Malian junta won its case. Russia vetoed on Wednesday August 30 a resolution of the United Nations Security Council extending sanctions against Malians threatening peace in their country.
Drafted by France and the United Arab Emirates, the resolution provided for a one-year extension of the sanctions regime put in place in 2017 and the mandate of the committee of experts responsible for monitoring its application. It collected 13 votes in favour, one abstention (China) and one vote against (Russia).
The sanctions, which targeted anyone violating or obstructing the 2015 peace accord, obstructing the delivery of aid, committing rights abuses or recruiting child soldiers, will end on Thursday. Eight individuals were concerned, including leaders of groups that signed the 2015 agreement, accused of jeopardizing it.
It was the Malian government at the time that called for these sanctions, but the junta now in power in the country demanded that they be lifted. “The reason behind the Malian request to set up this mechanism has ceased to exist”assured the Malian Foreign Minister, Abdoulaye Diop, in mid-August in a letter addressed to the Security Council, declaring that the “belligerence between the signatory movements” had « price nice ».
The committee of experts in the sights of Moscow
But in its last report, the committee of experts noted the “paralysis” implementation of the 2015 peace agreement. Emphasizing “rising tensions” among the groups that signed the agreement, he was also concerned about reports that some of these groups were arming themselves in the face of what they perceived as threats from the Malian armed forces. Concerns reinforced by the committed withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (Minusma), demanded by Bamako.
Read also: Mali: fears of conflagration in the north, the junta calls for dialogue
Russia agreed to extend the sanctions, but only one last time, and above all wanted to dissolve the committee of experts whose objectivity it disputes with Bamako. It was the only country to vote in favor of this proposal, Japan opposed it and the other thirteen members abstained.
US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the Council that Russia wanted to terminate the mission of the monitoring committee in order to “to stifle the publication of inconvenient truths about the actions [du Groupe] Wagner in Mali, actions that require special attention ».
The Independent Monitoring Committee reported earlier this month that Malian soldiers and their security partners, suspected of belonging to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, used violence against women and committed other “serious human rights abuses” to spread terror.
See also: Survey: one year after the end of “Barkhane” in Mali, the heavy toll of the Wagner Group
#Security #Council #Russia #vetoes #continuation #sanctions