Russia's veto ends UN sanctions in Mali

United Nations sanctions in Mali, targeting those violating a 2015 peace deal, obstructing aid delivery, committing rights abuses, or recruiting child soldiers, will end after Russia vetoed a renewal of the regime. Independent UN monitors reported that Mali's troops and foreign security partners, believed to be Russia's Wagner mercenary group, are committing grave human rights abuses. Thirteen Security Council members voted in favor of extending the sanctions, but Russia vetoed the resolution and proposed extending the sanctions for one final year without independent monitoring. The US accused Wagner of engineering the junta's request for a UN peacekeeping force to leave, and Mali's junta requested the sanctions to be lifted.