On Wednesday, Russia blocked a move to allow a team of UN specialists to remain in military-run Mali after they claimed that foreign forces, in this case Wagner mercenaries with ties to Moscow, were responsible for severe violations.
A plan that would have maintained the experts in place and prolonged by one year targeted sanctions in Mali, which are set to expire this week, was supported by 13 of the UN Security Council’s 15 members.
However, Russia used its veto authority to thwart the initiative put up by France and the United Arab Emirates, two former colonial powers of Mali. China didn’t vote.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s envoy, highlighted that the sanctions were first put in place in 2017 to assist a peace deal in the protractedly troubled Sahel nation.
“It is fundamentally important that UN Security Council sanctions deal solely with that issue and not be used as a means of foreign influence on Mali,” he added. The Security Council’s expert group has been working on this subject.
Following the panel’s criticism of the activities of Malian troops and their “foreign security partners”—clearly a reference to Wagner—Western governments accused Russia of retaliation.
According to a report presented in August to the Security Council, violence against women “allegedly committed by the Malian Armed Forces and their foreign and local allies is systematic and organised.”
Without professionals to oversee the sanctions, the entire operation would be “ineffective,” according to US ambassador Robert Wood.
According to Wood, “Russia wants to take away the panel of experts’ authority to prevent the publication of unsettling details about Wagner’s behaviour in Mali that call for attention.”
He said, “Too many people continue to suffer as a result of the ongoing bloodshed, and as a result of Russia’s conduct, this Council has failed to restart some of the most crucial international measures for resolving this situation.
– Last-minute diplomacy fails –
A 2015 peace agreement’s violators will no longer be able to travel and their assets will be frozen as a result of the expiration sanctions. Only eight persons have received punishments as a result of the limited implementation.
While acknowledging that the sanctions had been extended, Russia argued that this was the final time and demanded that the expert panel be disbanded immediately.
The Security Council’s diplomats left for a behind-closed-doors meeting but soon came back after failing to resolve the impasse.
Russia was the only country to endorse the resolution it had proposed.
The Russian attempts, according to Wood, were “disingenuous and lamentable,” since Moscow had pushed a different resolution without a chance for discussion.
Nebenzia stated that while Western countries disregarded concerns of Moscow and Mali, Russia provided a “constructive approach and a sensible compromise.”
He remarked, “There was every opportunity and chance for this to work up until the last minute.”
– Emerging Russian ally —
Following consecutive coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali’s allegiance to Russia has radically altered, making it one of the few countries to support Moscow at the UN over its invasion of Ukraine.
French soldiers fighting terrorists have been expelled from Mali by the junta, while UN peacekeepers’ ten-year mission was terminated in late June because of a lack of government support.
Wagner has been vicious in its support of Malian and other African forces that use the group. Wagner’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was murdered in an aircraft accident last week after organising a rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to UN rights investigators, at least 500 people were massacred in March 2022 in the central Mali town of Moura by Malian military and foreign forces, which investigators believe to be Wagner.
The Malian junta had called for the suspension of the sanctions system, arguing that the backing of a previous administration for it to promote the peace process was no longer relevant.
However, there has been a rise in hostilities between the government and the Coordination of Azawad Movements, an organisation made up primarily of ethnic Tuaregs that staged a rebellion in northern Mali in 2012.
Russia blocked a draught resolution that would have expressed alarm about “threats to the ceasefire” and called for full cooperation with UN forces as they prepare to leave by the end of the year.
Russian veto was referred to as “reckless” by British envoy James Kariuki, who cited growing unrest in Mali.
At a crucial time, he warned, “this will reduce the Council’s oversight and engagement on Mali’s peace process.”
