The military rulers in Mali have doubled down on their accucations that France was in league with jihadist militias who have been destabilising their country for a decade.
Mali said it has in its possession “concrete evidence” of France’s “acts of duplicity, espionage and destabilisation” against the landlocked West African country.
The junta has been in power since May 2021 following a coup against President Bah N’Dao.
Before a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday 18 October, Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop reiterated his country’s request to be given a fair hearing over these accusations which were levelled against its former colonial power on August 15th.
According to the head of Malian diplomacy, it was important that international public opinion be informed of these acts which also involve “sharing intelligence, the dropping of materials for the benefit of criminal organisations which are at the heart of insecurity and violations against the civilian population.”
Diop added: “Mali denounces the proxy war that is being imposed on it, as well as the manoeuvres and obstacles to the holding of this specific meeting for the manifestation of the truth”.
He was presenting the transitional government’s memorandum following the publication of the UN Secretary-General’s quarterly report on the political, security and humanitarian situation in Mali.
“Mali reserves the right to self-defence if France continues to undermine the sovereignty of our country, its territorial integrity and its security,” Diop warned.
Defamatory accusations according to Paris
Nicolas de Rivière, France’s permanent representative to the United Nations said it was deeply regrettable that Mali’s transitional authorities are repeatedly making what he called serious and unfounded accusations against his country.
“I recall that France has been committed for nine years at the request of Mali to fight terrorist groups and that 59 soldiers have paid the price with their lives in this campaign” the French diplomat added, stressing that his country “never violated Malian airspace” as was being peddled by the junta in Bamako.
Relations between Bamako and Paris deteriorated after President Emmanuel Macron announced the withdrawal of Operation Barkhane from Mali in June 2021.
The French ambassador to the UN said the decision for the troop withdrawal was made on 17 February following thorough consultations with all the partners involved in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel.
“It was based on the observation that the political and operational conditions were no longer met,” explained Nicolas de Rivière, referring to Bamako’s use of “Russian instructors” according to the transitional authorities, but which Paris and the Western media saw as mercenaries from the private military company Wagner to tackle the jihadists.
AC/te/lb/as/APA