MINUSMA Inaugurates Force Centre in Mopti / Egyptian peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) take part in an official ceremony to launch a new MINUSMA Force Centre in Mopti, in order to better protect civilians June 24,  2019.  (Credit: UN Photo/Harandane Dicko

By  Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW  YORK –  The  UN Security Council  extended for a year sanctions regime on Mali  including a travel ban and assets freeze on individuals and entities actively derailing  progress in implementing the 2015 Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in the west African nation. The resolution, which was adopted unanimously, imposes a travel ban and assets freeze on individuals and entities engaged in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, or stability of Mali. These sanctioned individuals are allegedly involved in kidnapping, human trafficking, weapons and drugs smuggling, which have financed the jihadist expansion.  Adopting resolution 2484 (2019) under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the Council also decided to extend until 30 September 2020 the mandate of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to resolution 2374 (2017) and requested that United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) continue to assist that body.

Joanna Wronecka, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of August, chairs the Security Council meeting on the situation in Mali  Aug. 29, 2019.  At right is Hasmik Egian, Director of the Security Council Affairs Division of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA)    (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

What is happening in Mali is quite unprecedented. The once peaceful country has descended into a cycle  of deadly ethnic and Islamist violence during the past few years.  In early June, tens of thousands of protesters marched in Mali’s capital Bamako, to protest what they described as President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s failure to stop a surge of violence in the center of the country. The demonstrations in Bamako condemned the killing of some 160 people in the Ogossagou, a village belonging to the Muslim Fulani ethnic group of herders in the Mopti region, on March 23.  Some 500 civilians have been killed since January 2018 in ethnic violence.  More than 200 people have been killed by anti-jihadist self-defense groups in Mali since the start of this year, according to the UN.

MALI  CURRENTLY IN A CRISIS SITUATION DESPITE THOUSANDS OF FOREIGN TROOPS DEPLOYED 

MINUSMA  MALI is the  deadliest peacekeeping mission in the world. Since 2013, when MINUSMA deployed,  nearly 200 peacekeepers have died in Mali, including close to  120 killed during hostilities.   The deadly violence has spiraled out of control this year, in particular, with no end in sight despite the presence of thousands of UN and international peacekeeping troops in Mali,  and across the Sahel region.

Five Mali Soldiers Killed In jihadist Ambush 

Credit:  Forcesarmeesmaliennes /  L’Armée Malienne – Mon Armée facebook. 

Just last week,  five soldiers  were killed in central Mali when their convoy was ambushed by jihadists, the armed forces said. The Mali Army stated  on its Twitter feed  that the attack occurred on a road between the villages of Boni and Hombori.  “FAMA (the Malian armed forces) suffered five dead. Equipment was also destroyed,” it said.  A local official said gunfire was heard and another said “the jihadists… burned at least two military vehicles. At least two soldiers were also wounded.”