Following Russia’s veto of a renewal of the sanctions, which targeted those who violated or obstructed a 2015 peace settlement, hindered aid delivery, violated human rights, or recruited child soldiers, the sanctions against Mali will be lifted on Thursday.
This month, independent U.N. sanctions monitors informed the Security Council that violence against women and other “grave human rights abuses” are being used by Mali’s security forces and their foreign allies to foment terrorism. These allies are reportedly thought to include Russia’s Wagner mercenary outfit.
A resolution proposed by France and the United Arab Emirates to prolong the UN sanctions and independent monitoring for an additional year was approved by 13 members of the Security Council. China voted no, and Russia exercised its veto.
Russia then suggested that the U.N. sanctions in Mali be extended for one more year while promptly terminating the independent monitoring. Only that nation cast a yes vote; Japan cast a no vote, and the other 13 members chose to abstain.
Robert Wood, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, explained before the council that Russia intended to remove the independent monitoring “to stifle publication of uncomfortable truths about Wagner’s actions in Mali, which require attention.”
As a retort, Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told Reuters that was speculation and smacked of “paranoia,” adding that Russia was “upholding the interests of the affected country — Mali, as the council is supposed to do.”
Additionally, the United States has charged Wagner, which has roughly 1,000 militants in Mali, with orchestrating the junta’s sudden request for a 13,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force to depart. By the end of the year, the ten-year-old business will close.
In order to combat an Islamist insurgency, Wagner partnered up with the junta that took control of Mali in coups in 2020 and 2021. Following the death of Wagner commander Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane accident in Russia last week, President Vladimir Putin ordered Wagner soldiers to swear loyalty to the Russian government.
This month, the military coup in Mali requested the lifting of the sanctions in a letter to the Security Council.
On Thursday, the current year’s mandate for the independent monitoring and U.N. sanctions regime will come to an end. After the two votes on Wednesday, Russia made it plain through its U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, that it would not bring up the subject again.
In order to apply asset freezes and travel restrictions, the council established the Mali sanctions system in 2017. The United Nations sanctions currently apply to eight individuals. On implementation and potential new designations, the independent monitors provided the council with updates twice a year.
Reuters
