APA – Bamako (Mali) – At the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security, which opened on Monday, Mali’s Defense Minister, Sadio Camara, said his country was “the first victim of a destabilisation campaign” in the Sahel and called on young Africans to take action.
“The Malian government has made the courageous and clear-sighted choice to change its security strategy, after realizing the failure of the strategies imposed,” Colonel Sadio Camara told the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security.
He was referring to the French army’s Operation Barkhane and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), which he said had deployed “tens of thousands of foreign troops with no positive impact on the population.”
“Our people have decided to take their destiny back into their own hands and build their autonomy with more reliable, more sincere partners, whose interests are transparent and clearly expressed within the framework of a win-win relationship,” Minister Camara insisted, while expressing his gratitude to the Russian Federation for its “solid and effective cooperation.”
He is of the idea that the Malian example is spreading throughout the Sahel and the continent.
“No one will be able to resist it, neither from within nor from without. The people have understood this, and now it’s up to the leaders to follow their example,” Colonel Camara suggested.
“I therefore appeal to the proud and combative youth of Africa, ready to resist unjust domination. It is up to them to stand up for their interests and their honor. No one else will. It’s a generational responsibility,” the Malian Defense Minister stressed, adding that African leaders “don’t look like” young Africans, “don’t understand their problems or aspirations” and “don’t live like” them.
Sadio Camara acknowledged that “the road is still long and tortuous, but we are resolutely optimistic about the ambition to turn Africa around and rebuild it, and about every high consideration.”
A member of the junta that deposed the late Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020 before rectifying Bah Ndaw’s transition ten months later, Colonel Sadio Camara is under US sanctions for his alleged role in the rapprochement between Bamako and the Russian paramilitary group, Wagner.
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