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- UN Security Council delegates, led by the ambassadors from the US, France and Niger, arrived in Bamako, Mali for talks to bring the military-led interim government for a return to democracy
- The country witnessed two coups in nine months.
UN Security Council delegates, led by the ambassadors from the US, France and Niger, arrived in Bamako, Mali for talks to bring the military-led interim government for a return to democracy. The country witnessed two coups in nine months.
The delegation is a part of international pressure on coup leaders to abide by a February 27 deadline set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which stipulates for a presidential election. The deadline that the regime is openly suggesting might be missed.
Kenya’s ambassador to the UN, Martin Kimani said it would be ideal for them to have a better understanding of the situation in Mali to help the country cope with the situation. Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation Abdoulaye Diop welcomed the delegation. He hoped that the meeting would help to give a progress report by the government.
Recently, the Human Right Watch had urged the UN mission to use this as an opportunity to encourage Malian authorities to “investigate a spate of alleged summary executions, enforced disappearances, and detentions by government security forces Reports indicate that at least 14 men last seen in the custody of security forces, had disappeared or remain in “incommunicado detention”. The bodies of three men allegedly executed after their arrest by soldiers earlier this month were found nearby an army camp, it said. Mali has at least 20 ethnic groups, who have very complex relations with each other. Islamist insurgency is a challenge to be put up by the government. Military intervention by France and the UN has failed to quell that. Now the insurgency has spilled over an Islamist insurgency that. It has now spilled over to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, leaving thousands dead and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.
