United Nations Security Council on Tuesday established a Mali sanctions regime authorizing the UN to blacklist anyone who obstructs a 2015 Mali peace deal, hinders the delivery of aid, commits human rights abuses or recruits child soldiers. The UN added that anyone who enters the blacklist will be subjected to a global travel ban or asset freeze.
“We do see the sanctions as an additional tool in order to promote the peace agreement,” French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told the Security Council. “Time is not on our side and the peace agreement in Mali is one of the keys to stabilization of the regional situation in the Sahel.”
The 2015 peace deal signed by Mali’s government and separatist groups has proved inefficient in the fight against violence in northern Mali by Islamist militants.
