UN to vote sanctions regime for Mali

The UN Security Council will vote Tuesday on a draft resolution presented by France that would set up a sanctions regime for Mali, the council’s Ethiopian presidency said Saturday.
The move is backed by Mali’s government, which earlier told the council that repeated ceasefire violations by jihadists threatened to derail a 2015 peace agreement ending years of fighting with the insurgents in the north.
Islamist jihadists took over territory in northern Mali in 2012, but were driven out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013.
Mali’s government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups in June 2015 to end the fighting, but insurgents remain active, including in central Mali.