Adoption of UNSCR 2056 on Mali

I welcome the United Nations Security Council’s adoption today, on France’s initiative, of UNSCR 2056 on Mali. Mali and, more broadly, the Sahel are being plunged into an extremely serious crisis. This crisis threatens the security of the people, accentuates the current humanitarian crisis in the region, increases the terrorist threat and is now damaging the world’s cultural heritage. UNSCR 2056, which is in line with Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, sets the framework for a comprehensive political solution in Mali and demonstrates the international community’s active efforts.

The Security Council reiterates its support for the efforts of ECOWAS and the African Union [AU], with the backing of the United Nations Secretary-General, to find a political solution to the crisis in Mali.

The Security Council first sets out very clearly its expectations for progress on implementing the transition: it demands the dissolution of the junta and calls on the civilian authorities to draw up a road map in consultation with all the Malian political parties and civil society to consolidate the transition in Mali.

The Security Council recalls that Mali’s territorial integrity cannot be called into question, and it demands that the rebel groups immediately end hostilities and renounce their links with the terrorist groups present in the region.

The Security Council also calls on all states to coordinate their efforts to combat the terrorism of AQIM [al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb], the MUJAO [Unity Movement for Jihad in West Africa] and their supporters and calls for sanctions to be adopted. France strongly relays that call: the international community must do everything possible to fight terrorism in Mali and the Sahel, which threatens to destabilize the whole region. France also urges all the states in the region, in both the northern and southern Sahara, to step up their cooperation to fight AQIM.

Finally, the Security Council declares itself ready to examine the request by ECOWAS and the AU to authorize the deployment of a stabilization force in Mali as soon as it receives details of the aims and resources of such a force, such details being essential prior to any decision. The UNSC encourages the Malian transitional authorities, ECOWAS, the AU and the United Nations to work together and cooperate closely to provide those details.

France is fully mobilized in helping the Malian authorities, ECOWAS and the AU to implement, as from today, the political aspects of the resolution, which is the first result of our efforts on the subject at the Security Council. She will also continue to mobilize all her partners at the Security Council, in the European Union and in all the international forums concerned, to move towards a comprehensive political solution in Mali./.