Russia has vetoed efforts to keep a team of United Nations experts in Mali who had accused foreign fighters – a veiled reference to Russia’s Wagner mercenary force – of involvement in widespread abuses in the military-run West African country.
Thirteen of the UN Security Council’s 15 members backed a proposal on Wednesday that would have extended sanctions for one year on Mali and would have kept the experts in place.
But Russia exercised its veto power at the UN meeting to block the extension proposal led by France and the United Arab Emirates.
China abstained from the vote.
Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the sanctions were first put in place in 2017 to support a peace agreement in the long-troubled country.
“It is fundamentally important that UN Security Council sanctions deal purely with that issue and not be used as a means of foreign influence on Mali, and that is something that the panel of experts of the Security Council has been involved in,” Nebenzia said.
Russia proposed extending the sanctions for one final year but wanted an immediate end to the independent monitoring team.
Western powers have accused Russia of retaliating against the UN experts after they spoke critically about actions by Malian forces and their “foreign security partners” – a clear reference to Wagner forces operating in the country. (Aljazeera)
