Russia, an ally of Bamako, vetoed on Wednesday August 30 a UN Security Council resolution extending sanctions against Malians who threaten peace in the country, and which the Malian junta called for the lifting. The resolution, which would extend for another year the sanctions regime introduced in 2017 against individuals endangering the 2015 peace agreement and the mandate of the committee of experts monitoring them, garnered 13 votes in favour, one abstention (China) and one vote against (Russia).
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. Its resolution to this effect was rejected, with one vote for, one against and 13 abstentions.
The latest report by the committee of experts published last week questioned in particular the violence against women perpetrated in a “systematic and organized” way by the Malian armed forces and their “foreign security partners”, alleged to be members of the Russian group. Wagner.
This sanctions regime (assets freeze or travel ban) was put in place in 2017 and concerned eight individuals, including leaders of groups that signed the 2015 peace agreement, accused of putting it at risk. These sanctions had been demanded by the Malian government at the time, but the junta in power today is calling for them to be lifted.
“The reason behind the Malian request to set up this mechanism has ceased to exist,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said in mid-August in a letter to the Security Council, stating that the “belligerences between the signatory movements” had “come to an end”. But in its latest report, the committee of experts noted the “paralysis” of the application of the 2015 peace agreement.
Highlighting “rising tensions” among the groups signing the agreement, he was also concerned about reports that some of these groups were arming themselves in the face of what they perceived to be threats from the Malian armed forces. . Concerns reinforced by the committed withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (Minusma), demanded by Bamako.
