Mali Asks U.N. to Help Seal Peace Deal

Mali's foreign minister asked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to ratchet up pressure on a holdout rebel group standing in the way of a landmark peace deal.

Abdoulaye Diop urged the 15-member council to endorse the Algerian-brokered draft peace accord and to threaten sanctions against those who block it.

The Malian government last month initialed the peace accord reached with armed groups in the north, as did the Plateform coalition representing some of the factions.

But the main Tuareg rebel alliance, known as the Coordination, has yet to sign on.

"Malians are ready for peace. They are tired of war," Diop said.

"They want to close this dark chapter in the history of our nation, as one and undivided."

Algeria has scheduled a ceremony on April 15 during which the Coordination's representatives are due to initial the accord, with a formal signing to follow soon after.

Diop sounded a cautious note about prospects for that event, saying he was taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the holdout rebels.

The accord negotiated under U.N. auspices provides for greater regional autonomy for the north in line with long-standing demands by Tuaregs and other groups.

The deal, which has been under negotiations for eight months, would bring to an end a conflict that culminated with an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012.

Islamist militants seized control of northern Mali for more than nine months until a French-led military intervention in 2013 that partly drove them from the region.

Diop said the failure to clinch the deal would have "enormous risks for peace in Mali, in the region and even beyond" and said hopes for peace were being "held hostage by a group of radicals and extremists."

"Those who, despite everything, choose to block the path to peace will leave the international community with no other choice but to isolate them and treat them as such by imposing sanctions," Diop said.

Violence has continued in Mali, with attacks targeting peacekeepers in the north and a deadly assault on a Bamako nightclub last month that left five dead.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the council that once a deal is reached, a firm timetable must be set for it to be implemented with a "clear and robust mechanism."

The Security Council later went into closed-door consultations on the crisis in Mali.