UN calls security situation in Mali ‘alarming’

Lacroix was critical of the slow progress in implementing a peace deal reached in June 2015 between Mali’s government, Tuareg separatists and armed groups in the north.

Despite advances on some fronts, he said that with elections looming in 2018 “we cannot ignore the major delays sustained and the fragility of the gains that have been made.”

Lacroix said criteria for integrating former combatants haven’t been determined, eight sites for the cantonment of weapons remain empty, and there is no clarity about government institutions which is “leading to splintering on the security and political fronts.”

The United Nations sent a peacekeeping force to Mali in 2013 to help stabilize the country and it has become the most dangerous and deadly of its 16 far-flung missions with at least 114 members killed since it began operations.

Lacroix welcomed the decision by five countries in the Sahel including Mali to set up a regional force.

He said the U.N. peacekeeping mission — which has more than 12,000 troops and police and over 1,300 civilian staffers, with a current budget of $933 million — will step up support to Malian forces and help the government implement defence and security reforms.

Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop told the council the government’s accomplishments “are still fragile” and the country faces many challenges including mobilizing resources to implement the peace agreement and restore authority throughout the country.

Mali also needs funds to provide “the peace dividend” to people affected by the crisis in the country, he said.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the government to do more to implement the peace agreement and immediately focus on extending the authority of the state. She said the Security Council must also do more to address the shortfalls in the peacekeeping mission.

“In far too many parts of Mali, there isn’t a peace for the blue helmets to keep,” Haley said, and “the mission’s equipment is simply not up to standard.”

Haley said in the coming months the U.S. will be reviewing MINUSMA’s mandate to help the mission “play a more effective role.”

Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

UN calls security situation in Mali ‘alarming’

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