Mali urges UN to authorize force to fight terrorism in Sahel
NEW YORK: Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop has urged the UN Security Council to authorize the immediate deployment of a fivenation force to fight the growing “terrorist” threat in Africa’s vast Sahel region — a move the US opposes.
Diop told the council that Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, acting president of the so-called Group of Five or G-5, is deeply concerned at the difficulties the French-drafted resolution is facing in the council.
Leaders of the G-5 — Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Chad — created the joint force to fight terrorism, trans-national organized crime and human trafficking, and its deployment is only awaiting Security Council authorization, he said.
A US official said earlier this month that while the administration of US President Donald Trump supports the force in principle, it does not believe a Security Council resolution is legally necessary for its deployment.
The US is seeking to cut $1 billion from the UN peacekeeping budget and diplomats say the administration does not want a new UN mission that could add to costs. The draft resolution asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to present options to the Security Council to finance the G-5 force.
A 2012 uprising was blamed for prompting mutinous soldiers to overthrow Mali’s president of a decade, creating a power vacuum that ultimately led to an insurgency and a Frenchled war that ousted the terrorists from power in 2013.
Two soldiers killed
But terrorists remain active in the region, frequently attacking Malian and French soldiers as well as UN peacekeepers trying to stabilize the north. On Saturday, a local official and a resident said two soldiers were killed and others abducted after terrorists attacked a military base in northern Mali.
The terrorists attacked the military camp at Bintagoungou, some 80 km from Timbuktu, the official said. “At least two soldiers were killed and many others were abducted. All the camp’s military material was ransacked,” he added.