Visiting Mali, the UN delegation calls for pressure on the junta

Published on : 10/24/2021 – 08:01

The UN Security Council delegation arrived in Bamako on Saturday, October 23. His goal ? Encourage Mali to return to civilian power after two putschs in nine months in this country, the scene of jihadist and community violence, noted an AFP journalist.

The delegation, hosted by the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, is co-chaired by the Ambassador of Niger to the United Nations, Abdou Abarry, and his French counterpart Nicolas de Rivière, and notably includes the American Ambassador to the United Nations. ‘UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

“Palpable tensions”

She is due to meet on Saturday and Sunday with the Malian authorities, representatives of civil society and armed groups signatories to the 2015 peace agreement, according to the official program.

At the same time, a delegation of the Malian junta led by the Minister of National Reconciliation, Colonel Ismaël Wagué, met on Friday and Saturday in Algiers with the leaders of these armed groups, the Algerian mediation indicated in a statement, without specifying these groups.

The meeting “was extremely important insofar as it comes at a time when tensions were palpable between the different parties signatories of the” peace agreement, said, without further details, Colonel Wagué, quoted by the agency on Saturday. Algerian official.

The Security Council’s visit to Mali comes as the transitional authorities openly show their willingness to postpone the presidential election scheduled for February 27 – a date imposed by the Community of West African States (ECOWAS ) – for a return to civil power.

The UN Security Council wants electoral deadlines to be respected, after the two putschs of August 2020 and May 2021.

The UN delegation arrived in Bamako a few hours after the appeal of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) to put pressure on the Malian authorities to open investigations into executions and disappearances attributed to the security forces.

“Respect for human rights”

“The Malian authorities should investigate a series of allegations of summary executions, enforced disappearances and incommunicado detention by government security forces,” HRW said in a statement released Friday evening.

“The UN Security Council should take advantage of its visit to ensure that the government honors its human rights obligations, investigates abuses by all parties and initiates appropriate prosecutions,” added long.

“Since September, at least 14 men, last seen while being held by security forces have + disappeared + or remain in incommunicado detention” and “the bodies of three men who were allegedly executed after their arrest by soldiers in early October were found near the army camp in the town of Sofara “(center), continues HRW.

Following the dissemination on social networks of images of torture and corpses, the Malian army said in a statement on October 13 “that with regard to the scenes of torture, the facts have been informed and the perpetrators formally identified “, then sanctioned and” made available to the gendarmerie “.

On the other hand, the army is “against the allegations aiming to incriminate (him) in the summary executions whose images have flooded the Web”.

After Mali, the Security Council delegation will visit neighboring Niger on Sunday

With AFP