Briefing Security Council on Work Overseeing Mali Sanctions, 2374 Committee Chair Says List Has Been Updated for First Time Since 2017

The Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2374 (2017) concerning Mali briefed the Security Council today on its activities in 2022, noting that for the first time since its establishment in 2017, the Committee updated its Sanctions List, which currently comprises eight individuals deemed to obstructing the country’s peace process.

Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez (Mexico) said that the Committee held three informal consultations, with a fourth planned before the end of this year.  On 8 February, the Committee met with the Group of Experts to consider the partial report mandated by resolution 2590 (2021).  Given the date of its appointment, the Group was unable to produce a substantive report, but it took the opportunity to present its programme of work, he said.

On 16 March, the Committee met with representatives of Mali, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana, with the latter participating in his capacity as acting President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), he said.  Together, they discussed challenges in implementing the Council-authorized sanctions, while Committee members emphasized the essential role played by countries in the region in ensuring an effective sanctions regime.

On 28 July, the Committee discussed the Group of Experts’ final report, which was submitted to the Council on 3 August, he continued.  During that meeting, Committee members agreed on various actions to follow up on the Group of Experts’ seven recommendations.  They also agreed to give the Permanent Representative of Mali access to the final report, he said, adding that that representative made various observations on the report in a letter to the Chair on 11 August.

The Committee — which comprises all Council members and works by consensus — plans to meet before the end of the year with ECOWAS representatives to follow up on recommendations from the Group of Experts on that regional organization’s contributions to the implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, which was concluded in Algiers in 2014.

He went on to say that, with the support of the Group of Experts and the Secretariat, and for the first time since the Committee was established, the Sanctions List was updated in October to include additional information on three sanctioned individuals.  So far this year, the Committee has published four press releases on its activities, he said, adding that eight individuals are currently on its Sanctions List.

The meeting began at 10:05 a.m. and ended at 10:11 a.m.