Mali asks UN to slap sanctions, beef up peace mission

Mali's prime minister asked the UN Security Council today to impose sanctions against anyone blocking a year-old peace deal and to strengthen the peacekeeping mission after a spate of attacks.
Prime Minister Modibo Keita warned of deteriorating security on the ground after 28 peacekeepers were killed in attacks this year in Mali, making it the deadliest UN mission in the world.
"The deterioration of the situation is without a doubt a threat to all of our states" in the region, Keita told the council.
The prime minister recalled that the council had adopted a resolution that provides for sanctions against those who oppose the peace deal signed in June 2015.

"It is timely and urgent for this provision to be implemented," he said.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre said it was time to speed up implementation of the peace deal aimed at ending years of fighting in northern Mali and turn the page on the Islamist takeover of 2012.

"We have seen too many delays on too many fronts," said Delattre, who holds this month's presidency of the council.
France is drafting a resolution to deploy some 2,500 extra peacekeepers to the mission, known as MINUSMA, which currently has about 12,000 police and soldiers.
Delattre said the measure, expected to be adopted by the council on June 29, will strengthen MINUSMA's capacity and "enhance the security of peacekeepers."

The UN envoy for Mali and MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif described the situation in Mali as "worrisome" and said delays in moving ahead with the peace deal were "undermining the entire process."
Annadif said "losses could have been avoided" if the contingents were better-trained and better-equipped, in particular with armored personnel carriers that can withstand attacks from explosive devices planted on roads.
MINUSMA is asking the United Nations to provide surveillance drones and five more helicopters to accompany convoys on the dangerous explosives-laden routes.
A German contingent of 650 troops that will deploy in Mali in the coming months will bring aerial drones and transport planes to bolster MINUSMA.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is not a signatory to the peace deal, has claimed responsibility for two recent attacks on peacekeepers in the northern city of Gao.
Annadif warned that the threat from jihadist groups was shifting further south in Mali and that this should not be "trivialised.