The UN Security Council on Tuesday agreed to set up a sanctions regime for Mali to punish those who obstruct a 2015 peace deal as fears grow that the West African country is sliding back into turmoil. The council voted unanimously to back a resolution put forward by France that established a sanctions committee to consider names of individuals and entities to be put on a UN blacklist.
Those on the list would be subject to a global travel ban and an assets freeze. The move is backed by Mali's government, which has told the council that repeated ceasefire violations by jihadists threatened to derail a 2015 peace agreement ending years of fighting with the insurgents in the north.
Islamist jihadists took over territory in northern Mali in 2012, but were driven out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013. Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups in June 2015 to end the fighting, but insurgents remain active, including in central Mali.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre stressed that France had worked "hand in hand" with the government in Bamako to set up the sanctions regime. "Now is the right time to move forward to give a boost to the implementation of the peace accord in Mali. That's what this text is all about," Delattre said.
No names have been submitted, but the resolution states that those who obstruct or delay the peace agreement implementation, block aid deliveries, or attack UN peacekeepers can be blacklisted. Insurgents have repeatedly attacked the UN peacekeeping force in Mali, which is considered the world's most dangerous UN mission.
Mali and four neighboring countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger - are working to set up a counterterrorism force to fight jihadists in the Sahel, a region France has warned could become a haven for extremists. In the latest attack to shake the region, gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou on August 14, killing 19 people including several foreigners.
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