UNITED NATIONS, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - With Mali peace talks starting again in Algeria, the UN Security Council unanimously agreed to a Press Statement welcoming the resumption of the negotiation process and calling for respect for the agreed ceasefire.
According to the statement released on Friday, the UN Security Council “urged all parties to fully respect the ceasefire agreement signed on May 23, 2014, as well as the declaration of the Cessation of Hostilities signed in Algiers on July 24, 2014 and to refrain from any action that could jeopardize the prospects for peace and to reject the recourse to violence.”
Citing previous road-map agreements reached in July, the Security Council's members called on the Malian parties to “to reach a comprehensive and inclusive peace agreement to bring a durable political resolution to the crisis and long-term peace and stability throughout the country, respecting the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Malian State.”
After a series of Press Statements on Mali condemning the targeting and killing of UN Peacekeepers there, on Friday the Security Council's members expressed their concern about the deteriorating security situation in the North of Mali. “The members of the Security Council urged the armed groups operating in northern Mali to demonstrate their commitment to cooperate with the UN to immediately stop and condemn attacks against peacekeepers, in line with the declaration they signed on September 16, 2014 in Algiers and called on all actors on the ground to help to prevent such attacks,” the statement said.
The inter-Malian peace talks are scheduled to begin in Algiers on October 19. The news on negotiations resumption comes amid the violence increase in the country’s north, including the killing of nine Nigerian UN Peacekeepers earlier in October.
United Nations established a peacekeeping mission in Mali in August 2013 to stabilize the region after 2012 Tuareg rebellion against the Malian government seeking independence for the country’s northern region.
