Russia has wielded its veto power at the United Nations to thwart efforts to extend the presence of a team of UN experts in Mali.
These experts had raised allegations against foreign fighters, indirectly pointing towards Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, for their involvement in widespread abuses within the military-run West African nation.
While 13 out of the 15 members of the UN Security Council supported a proposal to prolong sanctions on Mali for a year and keep the experts in place, Russia employed its veto power during the UN meeting to block the extension, a move led by France and the United Arab Emirates. China, on the other hand, abstained from the vote.
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Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, justified the veto by stating that the sanctions were initially implemented in 2017 to support a peace agreement in Mali.
Nebenzia emphasized that the sanctions should exclusively address that issue and should not serve as a tool for foreign influence on Mali.
Russia had proposed the extension of sanctions for one final year but with an immediate halt to the independent monitoring team’s operations.
The dispute has escalated as Western powers have accused Russia of retaliating against the UN experts for their critical comments about the actions of Malian forces and their “foreign security partners,” which is widely understood to refer to the Wagner forces operating in the country. Independent UN sanctions monitors recently reported to the Security Council that Malian soldiers and their foreign security partners, believed to be Russian mercenaries, were employing violence against women and committing severe human rights abuses that spread terror.
The controversy also stems from UN human rights investigators accusing Malian troops and foreign forces, presumably Wagner, of perpetrating a massacre that claimed at least 500 lives in the central Malian town of Moura in March 2022.
Following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali has gravitated towards Russia, aligning itself with Moscow at the UN regarding its invasion of Ukraine.
Additionally, Mali’s military rulers have expelled French forces, who were combating ISIL-affiliated fighters, along with UN peacekeepers from the country.
Deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, conveyed that Russia’s intention was to suppress the publication of uncomfortable truths about Wagner’s actions in Mali by eliminating the independent monitoring, thereby requiring attention. The US has accused Wagner, which has an estimated 1,000 fighters in Mali, of orchestrating the abrupt request by Mali’s military for the departure of the 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force from the nation. This decade-long operation is set to conclude by the year’s end.
As uncertainties mount in Mali, the UK’s envoy at the council meeting, James Kariuki, labeled Russia’s veto as “reckless.” He warned that this move could diminish the council’s supervision and involvement in Mali’s peace process at a pivotal moment.
