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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“Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT),” the force said.
The graffiti, which workers were cleaning early Friday, called the wartime leader a “Zionist war criminal.”
The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called the damage “completely abhorrent” and said it was “glad” police had made an arrest.
“Churchill was a great Briton,” a spokesman said. “This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.”
- Pre-recorded message -
A Dutch activist, naming himself as Olax Outis, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
“If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun... it’s a reasonable assumption that I’m currently in a jail, somewhere in London,” the pre-recorded message said.
Outis said he was a member of Dutch group “Free the Filton 24 NL,” a group supporting the 24 Palestine Action activists charged over a break-in at a UK factory belonging to Israeli defense firm Elbit in 2024.
The group posted a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in overalls, with “I support Palestine Action” written on the back, painting the statue.
Other slogans painted onto the statue included “globalize the intifada.”
In December, police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting at a Jewish festival at Australia’s Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
The 3.6 meter (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalized a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.
UN threatens sanctions over faltering peace deal in Mali
UN threatens sanctions over faltering peace deal in Mali
UK police arrest man after Churchill statue sprayed with graffiti
- The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue
- The man detained was also held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action
LONDON: A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, UK police said Friday, after pro-Palestinian graffiti was sprayed on a Winston Churchill statue in central London.
The iconic monument to the World War II British prime minister in Parliament Square “was graffitied with red paint” overnight, the Metropolitan Police said on X.
“Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT),” the force said.
The graffiti, which workers were cleaning early Friday, called the wartime leader a “Zionist war criminal.”
The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on the statue.
The man detained was also held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, a proscribed organization under the Terrorism Act, police added.
The Greater London Authority condemned the “vandalism” and said work was underway to remove the graffiti “as quickly as possible.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office called the damage “completely abhorrent” and said it was “glad” police had made an arrest.
“Churchill was a great Briton,” a spokesman said. “This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.”
- Pre-recorded message -
A Dutch activist, naming himself as Olax Outis, claimed responsibility for the stunt in a message shared on social media by campaign group Prisoners for Palestine.
“If you see this message that peaceful protest has begun... it’s a reasonable assumption that I’m currently in a jail, somewhere in London,” the pre-recorded message said.
Outis said he was a member of Dutch group “Free the Filton 24 NL,” a group supporting the 24 Palestine Action activists charged over a break-in at a UK factory belonging to Israeli defense firm Elbit in 2024.
The group posted a video on its Instagram account appearing to show a man dressed in overalls, with “I support Palestine Action” written on the back, painting the statue.
Other slogans painted onto the statue included “globalize the intifada.”
In December, police said people chanting this phrase would be arrested as part of efforts to counter antisemitism and incitement to violence through slogans.
The police stance followed a deadly October attack on a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, and a December shooting at a Jewish festival at Australia’s Bondi Beach in Sydney in which 15 people were killed.
The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first raged from 1987 to 1993, while the second flared between 2000 and 2005.
The 3.6 meter (12-foot) Churchill statue has been vandalized a number of times in recent years, including during Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion climate demonstrations in 2020.
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