UN experts say Islamic State group almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in under a year

TANZANIA – Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in not up to a year, and their al-Qaida-linked opponents are capitalizing on the impasse and perceived weak spot of armed teams that signed a 2015 peace agreement, United Nations experts mentioned in a new document.

The stalled implementation of the peace deal and sustained attacks on communities have presented the IS group and al-Qaida associates a likelihood “to re-enact the 2012 scenario,” they mentioned.

That’s when a army coup came about in March and rebels in the north shaped an Islamic state two months later. The extremist rebels had been pressured from energy in the north with the assist of a French-led army operation, however they moved from the arid north to extra populated central Mali in 2015 and stay energetic.

The panel of experts mentioned in the document that the deadlock in enforcing the settlement — particularly the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of opponents into society — is empowering al-Qaida-linked Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin referred to as JNIM to vie for management in northern Mali.

Sustained violence and assaults most commonly via IS warring parties in the Greater Sahara have additionally made the signatories to the peace deal “appear to be weak and unreliable security providers” for communities centered via the extremists, the experts mentioned.

JNIM is making the most of this weakening “and is now positioning itself as the sole actor capable of protecting populations against Islamic State in the Greater Sahara,” they said.

The panel added that Mali’s military rulers are watching the confrontation between the IS group and al-Qaida affiliates from a distance.

The experts cited some sources as saying the government believes that over time the confrontation in the north will benefit Malian authorities, but other sources believe time favors the terrorists “whose military capacities and community penetration grow each day.”

In June, Mali’s junta ordered the U.N. peacekeeping force and its 15,000 world troops to go away after a decade of operating on stemming the jihadi insurgency The Security Council terminated the venture’s mandate on June 30.

The panel said the armed groups that signed the 2015 agreement expressed concern that the peace deal could potentially fall apart without U.N. mediation, “thereby exposing the northern regions to the risk of another uprising.”

The U.N. force, or MINUSMA, “played a crucial role” in facilitating talks between the parties, monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the agreement, and investigating alleged violations, the panel said.

The 104-page report painted a grim picture of other turmoil and abuses in the country.

The panel said terrorist groups, armed groups that signed the 2015 agreement, and transnational organized crime rings are competing for control over trade and trafficking routes transiting through the northern regions of Gao and Kidal.

“Mali remains a hotspot for drug trafficking in West Africa and between coastal countries in the Gulf of Guinea and North Africa, in both directions,” the experts said, adding that many of the main drug dealers are reported to be based in the capital Bamako.

The panel mentioned it stays specifically keen on chronic conflict-related sexual violence in the japanese Menaka and central Mopti areas, “especially those involving the foreign security partners of the Malian Armed Force” – the Wagner Group.

“The panel believes that violence against women, and other forms of grave abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law are being used, specifically by the foreign security partners, to spread terror among populations,” the document mentioned.