Addis Ababa, 21 December 2012: The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, welcomes the adoption yesterday, 20 December 2012, by the Security Council of the United Nations, of resolution 2085 (2012). This resolution, inspired by the Strategic Concept for the Resolution of the Crises in Mali and the harmonized Concept of Operations developed under the auspices and with the support of the AU, covers various aspects of the multidimensional crisis facing Mali. It is a milestone in the efforts to accelerate the completion  of  the return to constitutional order, the structuring of governance, the conduct of the negotiation between the Government of Mali and Malian rebel groups committed to respect the national unity and the territorial integrity of the country and rejecting terrorism, as well as the restoration of the authority of the Government of Mali on its entire territory and the elimination of the terrorist and criminal networks which operate in the northern part of the country. The Chairperson of the Commission expresses her appreciation to the UN Security Council and its members for their support and engagement with Mali and Africa.

The Chairperson of the Commission expresses her wish that, in accordance with the request of the AU and ECOWAS, the Security Council allow rapid implementation of a logistic support package funded by statutory contributions from the UN budget, with the view to facilitating the deployment and operations of the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA). At the same time, she calls on all African States and international partners to provide the necessary support, both financial and logistic, and in terms of training and equipment, to AFISMA and contribute generously to the Special Trust Fund set up for the benefit of Malian defense and security forces.

For its part, the AU, in close collaboration and coordination with the Government of Mali, the ECOWAS, the core countries and other concerned regional and international actors will work to finalize, as soon as possible, the pending aspects of the deployment planning of AFISMA. In the spirit of the Strategic Concept of the Resolution of the Crises in Mali, this process will be in parallel to the continuing efforts to facilitate a successful transition in Mali and the promotion of dialogue with all Malian rebel groups willing to negotiate, on the basis of the principles of respect for the inviolable national unity and territorial integrity of Mali, absolute rejection of terrorism and transnational organized crime, as well as the renunciation of armed struggle to assert political demands.

 The Chairperson of the Commission calls on stakeholders in Mali to take full advantage of this growing mobilization of the international community for their country, in order to hold, under the required conditions of inclusiveness, national consultations for adopting a Roadmap for the management of the transition and the modalities for achieving its objectives, including the holding, as soon as possible, of presidential and legislative elections all over the territory of the Republic of Mali.

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