UNSC Briefing/consultations on MINUSMA

[Friday, 29 October 2021; 1000 hrs EDT/ 19:30hrs IST]

INDIA STATEMENT

By

Ambassador R. Ravindra

Deputy Permanent Representative

Mr. President,

Let me begin by thanking SRSG El-Ghassim Wane and Head of MINUSMA for updating us on the mandate implementation of the mission and latest political developments in Mali. I welcome the participation of Representative of Mali in today’s meeting.

2. Today’s meeting is taking place against the background of Security Council’s visit to Mali a few days back. We thank the co-leads Niger and France for coordinating the visit and President of the Council for leading us.  We had important meetings with the transitional authorities in Mali, including President of the Transition and the Malian stakeholders. The Council also visited the headquarters of MINUSMA and G-5 Sahel Command Centre in Bamako. The interactions were indeed helpful to understand the gap between expectations of international community on the transition phase and the political and security realities on the ground.

3. In this regard, let me offer the following observations:

i. The developments in the recent months indicate that the transition process may go beyond February 2022, a commitment that was made by the transition authorities to ECOWAS. It is important that transitional authorities are constantly encouraged to undertake political and institutional reforms and hold elections in line with their understanding with ECOWAS.

ii. The mediation and good-offices role of regional and sub-regional organizations of Africa remains vital in resolving the armed conflicts, political impasse and helping the countries in their political transitions. We urge transitional authorities to cooperate with ECOWAS.

iii. The implementation of Peace Agreement is an important factor in bringing stability to the northern regions. The transitional authorities and signatory parties need to work in good faith to implement the provisions of the Peace Agreement. Towards this end, we welcome the active engagement of Algeria including appointment of Special Envoy.

iv. It is evident that the security situation in Mali has worsened in the recent months, particularly in the north and central region. The terrorist groups such as Jamaa Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have increased their attacks. MINUSMA camp in Kidal has come under repeated attacks, so have the patrol convoys. The situation in  central Mali has deteriorated with extremist groups continuing to take advantage of administrative and security vacuum.

v. What we could assess from the visit to Mali and discussion with various stakeholders, is that a strong counter-terrorism response is needed to defeat the terrorist groups. The solution does not lie in providing MINUSMA a more robust mandate, but in strengthening national and regional security forces and providing them adequate capacity building, financial and technical assistance so that they can effectively deal with these challenges. In this regard, we would like to re-iterate our call for greater UN support for the Joint Force of G5 Sahel, including by providing the Joint Force necessary financial support through UN assessed contributions. The Secretary General’s recommendation for a dedicated UN support office in Sahel to provide  support of necessary logistics to the Joint Force could be a good model to start with.

vi. On the peacekeeping front, MINUSMA continues to operate in a complex and challenging environment. We fully support MINUSMA’s role and efforts in stabilizing the security situation in Mali, and its capacity building assistance to strengthen civil and military institutions. While there may be grounds for increasing the troop ceiling of the Mission, it is important that the decision is calibrated with the strengthening of Malian security forces. The tendency of burdening peacekeepers with responsibilities which go beyond the scope of peacekeeping and the skewed approach to get more out of limited resources can lead to furtherfatal consequences for MINUSMA. MINUSMA is one of the Missions which has started implementing the Integrated Performance Assessment Framework. We call for a holistic implementation of the Framework taking into account the assessment of all components of the Mission.

vi. The increasing attacks on MINUSMA camps and peacekeepers underscores the urgent need to upgrade the security infrastructure of camps. We also call for implementation of the provisions of resolution 2589, to bring to justice perpetrators of attacks against MINUSMA peacekeepers.

4. Mr. President, I conclude by reiterating that the Malian people deserve solutions to the political and security challenges, which they have now been facing for a decade. We should encourage the Malian stakeholders to take ownership of priority tasks of undertaking reforms, embracing electoral polity by implementing election roadmap and the peace agreement. The Council should also consider its support in finding practical and regional solutions to the security situation in Mali. India remains committed to support the people of Mali in overcoming the present political and security crisis.

I thank you, Mr. President.

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