The U.N. Security Council threatened sanctions Wednesday against parties in Mali who obstruct or delay the full implementation of a 2015 peace agreement. The council welcomed the timeline set by the parties at a meeting in Mali’s capital Jan. 15-16 to implement the agreement by the end of March — and urged that it be fulfilled. The power vacuum that was created ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013. “It’s urgent that we confront the fact that we’re racing against time in Mali,” U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the council Tuesday. The Security Council stressed the importance of making “substantive progress” toward peace and delivering “visible peace dividends” to people in the restive north and elsewhere ahead of local and regional elections in April and presidential elections in mid-July.

Source: National Post January 24, 2018 20:56 UTC