UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Wednesday gave parties to a peace deal in Mali until the end of March to show progress or face sanctions for obstructing the 2015 agreement.
The council unanimously adopted a French-drafted statement that “expressed a shared sense of impatience regarding the persistent delays” in making the agreement a reality on the ground.
Council members “expressed their intention to follow the situation closely and to respond with appropriate steps should the parties not implement the commitments” by the end of March, the statement warned. extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched 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.
Last week, the government and two other armed groups, the Plateforme and Coordination, agreed to appoint the Carter Center as an independent observer to push for more progress.
The council said there was a “pressing need to deliver tangible and visible peace dividends to the population in the North and other parts of Mali” ahead of elections scheduled for this year.
The statement listed decentralization of authority, disarmament and demobilization, setting up better cooperation mechanisms in the northern towns of Kidal and Timbuktu and ensuring women’s participation as key areas of focus.
During a meeting in New York, US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday told Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly that Mali had reached “a pivotal moment.”
Implementing the 2015 peace deal and holding successful elections are “critical to further Mali’s political transition,” said a statement from the US mission.
The council in September set up a sanctions regime for Mali as fears grew that the peace deal for the West African country was collapsing.
Large tracts of the country remain lawless as UN peacekeepers continue to come under attack.
During a council meeting on Tuesday, French Ambassador Francois Delattre said any side that fails to live up to its commitments under the peace deal should face targeted sanctions.
Under the sanctions regime, the council has the power to slap a global visa ban and assets freeze on any Malian national seen as a hindrance to peace.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday announced that he was setting up an international commission of inquiry to investigate serious violations of human rights committed in Mali since January 2012.
A three-person panel led by Lena Sundh of Sweden will submit a report to Guterres within a year.
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UN threatens sanctions over faltering peace deal in Mali
UN threatens sanctions over faltering peace deal in Mali
Militants kill 6 officers and a civilian in ambushes on police vehicles in northwest Pakistan
- Assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat — When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian
- No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A pair of attacks on police vehicles by suspected militants killed at least six police officers and a civilian in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities said.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
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