Post by Onyango Oloo on Jun 28, 2015 10:57:38 GMT 3
EXCERPT:
The much delayed signing of a new accord between north and south offers a chance to defeat the jihadists and sideline the secessionists
Three days after presiding on 20 June over the signing in Bamako of a peace agreement between northern rebels and President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Mongi Hamdi was in New York trying to drum up support at the United Nations Security Council to prolong the peacekeepers' presence. The UNSC has to decide before 30 June whether to renew the mandate for the 7,000-strong Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation au Mali (Minusma), which is headed by Tunisia's Hamdi, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Mali.
With France backing Hamdi, drawing up the resolution to extend the mandate and strongly arguing for more UN resources for Mali, Minusma is almost certain to be extended, despite growing doubts about its performance and arguments over its role. Paris, which has promised to bolster the security of the UN Mission, wants 40 extra military observers to monitor the latest ceasefire but stops short of proposing sanctions against those who break the agreement.
Caught between Mali's own army, which appears to have contracted out much of the fighting in the north to state-backed militias, and French Special Forces whose main task is to pursue Islamist fighters into the Ifoghas Mountains, the UN peacekeepers have been struggling to hold the line as political conditions deteriorated. With 36 peacekeepers killed and 150 wounded, the UN Mission has the highest fatalities of any peacekeeping operation apart from Somalia.
Some want Minusma to be given a more robust Chapter VII mandate, giving it the authority to go on the offensive against armed groups. Its current task is mainly to protect civilians from attack, support dialogue and ensure the implementation of the peace agreements. Others strongly oppose such an escalation of the UN role, arguing that the core responsibility for security has to rest with Mali's army and the French forces. Added to which, political support for the UN has tailed off dramatically within Mali, especially in the south, where many politicians accuse the UN and France of favouring the northern rebels of various hues, from nationalists to jihadists.
NOW CLICK LINK BELOW FOR THE FULL STORY:
www.africa-confidential.com/article/id/11134/A_peace_deal%2c_against_all_odds