Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year, and their al-Qaida-linked rivals are also capitalizing on the deadlock and perceived weakness of armed groups that signed a 2015 peace agreement.
Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year, and their al-Qaida-linked rivals are capitalizing on the deadlock and perceived weakness of armed groups that signed a 2015 peace agreement, United Nations experts said in a new report.
The stalled implementation of the peace deal and sustained attacks on communities have offered the IS group and al-Qaida affiliates a chance “to re-enact the 2012 scenario,” they said.
The panel of experts said in the report that the impasse in implementing the agreement — especially the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants into society — is empowering al-Qaida-linked Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin known as JNIM to vie for leadership in northern Mali.
Sustained violence and attacks mostly by IS fighters in the Greater Sahara have also made the signatories to the peace deal “appear to be weak and unreliable security providers” for communities targeted by the extremists, the experts said.
The panel said the armed groups that signed the 2015 agreement expressed concern that the peace deal could potentially fall apart without U.N. mediation, “thereby exposing the northern regions to the risk of another uprising.”
The U.N. force, or MINUSMA, “played a crucial role” in facilitating talks between the parties, monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the agreement, and investigating alleged violations, the panel said.
The panel said it remains particularly concerned with persistent conflict-related sexual violence in the eastern Menaka and central Mopti regions, “especially those involving the foreign security partners of the Malian Armed Force” – the Wagner Group.
“The panel believes that violence against women, and other forms of grave abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law are being used, specifically by the foreign security partners, to spread terror among populations,” the report said.
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The kind where America is expected to go solve everyone's problems because no one else will. But the same people who would love to see the US solve the world's problems, also condemns the US every time it interferes in some other country's internal affairs.
No we want America to stay at home. The last time they funded radical groups in Syria, in their illegal and failed attempt to unseat the Asad regime, the result was a deluge of refugees in Europe. Nobody wants this kind of help.
We WANT to stay home but that doesn't stop every mistreated and spoiled group out there begging for American intervention. Lord knows no one can count on the UN or any of the European countries to do anything. They can barely help their own fellow European neighbor after it was invaded. With friends like that...
The kind where America is expected to go solve everyone’s problems
Well, the current government in Mali is the result of a military coup. The previous, elected government was friendly with France, and the new, military coup crowd is friendly with Russia.
Then when the coup guys decided that they didn't need to hold elections when they said they would, they got condemned by the US.
Russia, China block UN Security Council from supporting new sanctions on Mali
Russia and China blocked the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday from supporting new sanctions on Mali for its military leaders’ decision to delay next month’s elections until 2026, a blow to the restoration of democracy in the troubled West African nation.
So I vaguely imagine that said government probably isn't asking the US to become involved, because the US's position is that they should have held elections.