Mali

Mali’s constitution was revised in a referendum on Friday, with an overwhelming 97 percent of voters supporting the changes. This marks a significant stride towards the ruling junta’s objective of reinstating civilian rule. The amended constitution grants more power to the president, fueling speculation about Colonel Assimi Goita, the junta’s leader, potentially running for president.

The United States regrets a decision by Mali's interim military authorities to ask a United Nations peacekeeping force to leave the country, the State Department said on Monday, calling for an "orderly and responsible" drawdown of the mission. Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop made the request during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday, citing a "crisis of confidence" between Malian authorities and the decade-long U.N. mission known as MINUSMA.

On Friday 16th June, Mali’s Foreign Minister, Abdoulaye Diop, told the UN Security Council, that its 13,000-strong stabilization mission (MINUSMA) should leave without delay. MINUSMA has tried to stabilize Mali for a decade, but Diop’s demand comes after a long period of increasingly difficult relations between the country’s junta and the UN.

head of its peacekeeping mission in the country, MINUSMA, said in a briefing to the Security Council on Friday. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of Mali's junta Colonel Assimi Goita discussed security and economic relations between their two countries, both sides reported on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Tuesday for maintaining but streamlining a decade-old peacekeeping mission in troubled Mali, whose military leaders have clashed with the West and turned to Russia.

Le projet de Constitution soumis au vote dimanche 18 juin accroît les pouvoirs du chef de l’Etat, qui aura notamment l’initiative des lois au même titre que les parlementaires.

The UN has strongly condemned an attack on a peacekeeping patrol in Mali which left one ‘blue helmet’ from Burkina Faso dead and eight others with serious injuries.

The Council today adopted an assistance measure under the European Peace Facility worth €4.7 million to support the Nigerien Armed Forces with military equipment designed to deliver lethal force in full respect of relevant international law.

Campaigning for Mali's referendum on long-delayed changes to its constitution kicked off on Friday, ahead of the vote on 18 June. The country's military rulers say the new constitution has been drafted with the input of ordinary citizens, but some observers fear it will concentrate power in the hands of the president.