A resolution to extend by a year the sanctions regime introduced in 2017 against people who threaten the 2015 peace accord received 13 votes in favor, with China abstaining and Russia voting against.
Before the vote, Russia finally announced it would agree to extend the sanctions, but on the condition that the panel of experts responsible for monitoring them be disbanded, a move Bamako has questioned its objectivity. A resolution on the matter was rejected with one vote in favor, one against, and 13 abstentions.
As AFP writes, the latest report by the group of experts, published last week, describes specific violence against women in a “systematic and organized manner” by the Malian armed forces and their “foreign security partners”, Russian nationals. Military organization.
Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, said Russia wanted to eliminate independent monitoring “to stifle the publication of inconvenient facts about the activities of the Wagner Group in Mali”.
The Wagner group, which has about 1,000 fighters in Mali, is the 13,000-strong UN. The United States also accused the military junta of preparing a sudden request for peacekeeping forces to leave the country. The decade-old operation is scheduled to close by the end of this year.
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