UNITED NATIONS: The UN peacekeeping chief urged Mali’s government on Tuesday to do everything possible to hold presidential elections on schedule in mid-July.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council that last week’s adoption of a timeline for the government, Tuareg separatists and armed groups to implement a June 2015 peace agreement by the end of March was an important step.
He said this should lead to progress on a host of issues including reform of the security sector and establishing security conditions for the presidential vote as well as local and regional elections in April.
“It’s urgent that we confront the fact that we’re racing against time in Mali,” Lacroix said. “We are confronting increasing insecurity which has cost the lives, unfortunately, of hundreds of civilians in the north and center of the country as well as dozens of elements of defense forces” from Mali, the UN and France.
Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the country’s president of a decade. The power vacuum that was created ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013. But insurgents remain active in the region.
Lacroix said 4.1 million Malians — or 22 percent of the West African nation’s population — will be “food insecure” this year.
“The goal needs to be to create conditions that would lead to elections, and beyond that pursuit of the peace process,” he said.
Lacroix said presidential elections “will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the stabilization of Mali.”
He said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres informed the council on Monday that he was establishing an international commission of inquiry to investigate serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed in Mali since January 2012.
“Its establishment represents an important step forward in the implementation of the justice and reconciliation measures of the (peace) agreement as well as in efforts to fight impunity,” the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping said.
Lacroix also announced a “comprehensive strategic review” of the more than 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Mali which has become the most dangerous in the world for peacekeepers. He said it was time to reassess “the assumptions that underpin” its presence, review its tasks mandated by the Security Council against its achievements, and re-examine its deployments.
Mali’s Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulubaly said the government is committed to progress which he said “has contributed to the progressive restoration of peace and security in our country.”
However, he said, “time is running short,” and the government is determined to accelerate implementation of the peace agreement.
In 2018, Coulubaly said, the government is committed to completing the implementation of the peace agreement, containing “increasing insecurity in the center of the country,” meeting demands “for urgent social needs,” and “organizing credible, transparent and peaceful elections.”
UN urges Mali government to hold presidential vote in July
UN urges Mali government to hold presidential vote in July
Hungary says it will block a key EU loan to Ukraine until Russian oil shipments resume
- Szijjártó said: “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine”
- Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments
BUDAPEST: Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes, Hungary’s foreign minister said.
Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian territory and into Central Europe.
Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies. Both countries ceased shipping diesel to Ukraine this week over the interruption in oil flows .
In a video posted on social media Friday evening, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Ukraine of “blackmailing” Hungary by failing to restart shipments. He said his government would block a massive interest-free loan the EU approved in December to help Kyiv to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.
“We will not give in to this blackmail. We do not support Ukraine’s war, we will not pay for it,” Szijjártó said. “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine.”
Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments to its embattled neighbor and only days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Yet Hungary and Slovakia — both EU and NATO members — have maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse — an argument some experts dispute.
Widely seen as the Kremlin’s biggest advocate in the EU, Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion, and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war. His government has frequently threatened to veto EU efforts to assist Ukraine.
On Saturday, Slovakia’s populist Prime minister Robert Fico said his country will stop providing emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil is not flowing through the Druzhba by Monday. Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said earlier this week that Hungary, too, was exploring the possibility of cutting off its electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Not all of the EU’s 27 countries agreed to take part in the 90-billion-euro loan package for Kyiv. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opposed the plan, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the loan and were promised protection from any financial fallout.
