Mohamed Ben Ahmed Mahri (Ben Ahmed Mahri) was designated for being responsible for, or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, or stability of Mali.
Ben Ahmed Mahri has funded terrorist armed groups through his drug trafficking, notably Al-Murabitun, which merged with other terrorist groups to form JNIM, with control over routes that cross northern Mali from Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Ben Ahmed Mahri uses convoys led by UN-sanctioned individual Ahmoudou Ag Asriw to traffic drugs. These trafficking convoys frequently generate clashes with competitors associated with other armed groups.
On February 7, 2020, OFAC issued the Mali Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 555 (85 FR 7223, February 7, 2020) (the “Regulations”), to implement Executive Order (E.O.) 13882 of July 26, 2019, “Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Mali” (84 FR 37055, July 30, 2019), pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13882. The Regulations were initially issued in abbreviated form for the purpose of providing immediate guidance to the public. OFAC is revising the Regulations to further implement E.O. 13882. OFAC is amending and reissuing the Regulations as a more comprehensive set of regulations that includes additional interpretive guidance and definitions, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions that will provide further guidance to the public. Due to the number of regulatory sections being updated or added, OFAC is reissuing the Regulations in their entirety.
On July 26, 2019, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA) and the United Nations Participation Act (22 U.S.C. 287c) (UNPA), issued E.O. 13882. In E.O. 13882, the President determined that the situation in Mali, including repeated violations of ceasefire arrangements made pursuant to the 2015 Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali; the expansion of terrorist activities into southern and central Mali; the intensification of drug trafficking and trafficking in persons, human rights abuses, and hostage-taking; and the intensification of attacks against civilians, the Malian defense and security forces, the United Nations Multi-dimensional Integrated Stabilizations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and international security presences, constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
