UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday urged parties in Mali to work for peace after political strife in the country in the past months almost derailed the implementation of a peace agreement.
French ambassador to the United Nations Francois Delattre, who is president of the Security Council for October, said the council has agreed to deliver a strong message to parties in Mali.
"There was consensus among all the members of the council ... (on) the need to send a firm message to the parties in Mali regarding the necessity to make significant progress in the implementation of the peace agreement," Delattre told reporters after a council meeting on Mali.
He said the Security Council also agreed to work toward coordination of the activities of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali and a newly established joint military force of five countries in the region.
Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the special representative of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Mali, told the Security Council that over the past months, the debate on the revision of the Malian Constitution as well as clashes between the two signatories to the peace agreement have almost derailed the implementation of the agreement.
While these crises have been averted, Annadif called on all parties to redouble their efforts to re-establish confidence, commit to reforms and provide peace dividends to the Malian people.
Briefing the Security Council via a video link from the Malian capital city of Bamako, Annadif warned that the UN peacekeeping mission in the country is confronted with major challenges related to the activities of extremist and terrorist groups, as well as criminal networks.
He also called for protection of peacekeepers in Mali, saying the almost daily loss of peacekeepers is becoming unbearable. He noted that only 35 percent of the humanitarian response plan has been funded so far.
Mali is plagued by a civil war and the rise of Islamist militants. Tuareg rebels in the north began to fight for independence in January 2012, and after a military coup that ousted Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure in March, declared independence of their own state -- Azawad. Tuareg rebels and Islamist groups, which were allies for the independence of Azawad, turned their guns against each other over division in ideology. In a few months' time Tuareg rebels lost control of most of northern cities to the Islamists. The Malian government had to ask for foreign military help to fight Islamists.
