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Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council proposal to extend sanctions on Mali which is presently run by a military junta. Thirteen of the council’s 15 members backed the draft resolution moved by France and the United Arab Emirates.
Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council proposal to extend sanctions on Mali which is presently run by a military junta. Thirteen of the council’s 15 members backed the draft resolution moved by France and the United Arab Emirates.
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This means that the regime banning travel and freezing the assets of anyone seen to threaten peace in the fragile country ended on Thursday. The Russian representative said that despite a constructive approach and a sensible compromise, the texts did not in any way take into consideration the concerns of the Malian side or the Russian Federation’s position. Moscow was opposed to keeping sanctions monitors in Mali. The UN team reported earlier this month that Malian troops and Bamako’s foreign partners believed to be Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, were committing human rights abuses.
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Deputy US Ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, told the council that Moscow wanted to get rid of the monitoring team to stifle the publication of uncomfortable truths about Wagner’s actions in Mali. The junta had urged the end of the sanctions, after earlier forcing an end to a decade-long UN peacekeeping mission in the country. Other council members also warned that the ending of the sanctions would reduce the UN’s oversight of and engagement in Mali’s 2015 peace process at a time when there are rising uncertainties in the country.
