France will tolerate “no ultimatum” and will not give in to “any pressure” in managing the withdrawal of its troops from Mali, according to French Prime Minister Jean Castex.
Faced with the Malian junta’s demand that its troops leave “without delay,” Jean Castex replied that the “gradual disengagement of French troops deployed in Mali will be done in good order and in safety.”
“We will not tolerate any ultimatum, and we will not be sensitive to any pressure, whatever their origin,” said Jean Castex, in a statement before the National Assembly.
“In military terms, we will have to close the bases at Gossi, Menaka and Gao. The withdrawal will be carried out in good order and security and will last between four and six months,” Jean Castex added. France announced on February 17, 2022 in Paris, the departure of Barkhane, its military force composed of 2,400 soldiers out of a total of 4,600 deployed in the Sahel, a departure that also entails the departure of the European Union’s military force Takuba.
Before the French MPs, the Prime Minister charged the transitional regime, which has “reneged, one by one, on its commitments,” making “the choice to rely on a well-known private organization of Russian mercenaries, Wagner, whose economic model is based on the predation of the wealth of the countries in which it operates,” he justified.
He argued that France and its partners in the European Union can no longer “engage in a country whose authorities no longer wish to cooperate with Europeans and hinder their ability to act.”
CD/fss/abj/APA