Security Council Renews Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, Unanimously Adopting Resolution 2531 (2020)
The Security Council, in a 29 June videoconference meeting*, extended the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) until 30 June 2021 and set out a series of priority measures to be fulfilled in the coming 12 months by the Mission and the Malian parties.
Unanimously adopting resolution 2531 (2020) under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the Council decided that MINUSMA will continue to comprise up to 13,289 military personnel and 1,920 police personnel. It also authorized the Mission to use “all necessary means” to carry out its mandate “with a proactive, robust flexible and agile posture”.
The 15‑member organ decided that MINUSMA’s primary tasks will include supporting the implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, signed in June 2015, support the stabilization and restoration of State authority in central Mali, protect civilians, exercise good offices, promote and protect human rights, and help create a secure environment for humanitarian assistance.
It also urges the Malian parties — comprising the Government and the Platforme and Coordination armed groups — to continue to accelerate the implementation of the Agreement. Setting out several priority measures, the Council urged the parties to make significant progress on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of armed groups and the operationalization of a reconstituted Malian Defence and Security Forces; to ensure the completion of constitutional reform; to implement pilot projects in northern Mali to swiftly deliver peace dividends to the population; and to implement the recommendations of a high-level workshop on women’s participation in mechanisms established by the Agreement.
Addressing the situation in central Mali, the 17-page resolution urges the Malian authorities to re-establish the State’s presence and authority by deploying internal security forces, judicial entities and basic social services. It also urges them to bring to justice those accused of perpetrating massacres that killed hundreds of civilians in 2019 and 2020.
Regarding other military forces in the region, the resolution encourages the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) States — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger — to scale up the level of operation of its joint force and requested the Secretary-General to enhance the sharing of intelligence between MINUSMA and the joint force. It also authorized French forces in Mali to use all necessary means to intervene in support of MINUSMA when the Mission faces a serious threat. In addition, it encouraged the European Union to continue to support security sector reform and the re-establishment of State authority throughout Mali.
From the Secretary-General, the Council requested that he continue to ensure close coordination and information‑sharing between MINUSMA, the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, subregional organizations including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the G5 Sahel, and Member States in the region. It also requested, in addition to reports every three months on the resolution’s implementation and every six months on MINUSMA’s operations, a long-term road map — to be presented by 31 March 2021 — focusing on a set of benchmarks and conditions that would lead to a possible exit strategy for MINUSMA without putting the stability of Mali and the region in jeopardy.
[Security Council resolutions are currently adopted through a written procedure vote under temporary, extraordinary and provisional measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as set out in a letter (document S/2020/253) by its President for March (China).]
__________* Based on information received from the Security Council Affairs Division.