Mali’s ruling junta on Sunday “demanded” French President Emmanuel Macron to end “his neo-colonial stance” and silence his criticism of the Malian army, accusing it of instigating ethnic hatred.
“The transitional government demands that President Macron definitively abandon his neo-colonial, paternalistic and condescending stance in order to understand that no one can love Mali better than the Malians,” government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga told public television.
He was reacting to comments made on Thursday in Bissau by Emmanuel Macron. Referring to Mali, which is facing a serious security crisis and the scene of two military coups in 2020 and 2021, Emmanuel Macron considered that the responsibility of the West African states is to work so that “the Malian people can (…) express their sovereignty and “build the framework of stability” that allows “effectively fighting terrorist groups”.
“Given that it is clear that the decisions taken today by the Malian junta and its de facto complicity with the Wagner militia are particularly ineffective in the fight against terrorism, that is no longer their objective and that is what presided over our decision to leave Mali. ground,” he added.
The French Barkhane force is packing up in Mali. Bamako, for its part, has always denied having called the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, present in Mali on a “commercial” basis, according to Russia.
“False Accusations”
On Sunday night, Abdoulaye Maïga also criticized Emmanuel Macron’s “wrong accusations” “despite denials” from Mali. Bamako also condemned “with the utmost rigour” the “hateful and defamatory” statements by President Macron warning of the abuses attributed to the Malian army against members of the Fulani community during the latest operations.
The Malian army and the Russian paramilitaries have been accused in particular of having carried out a massacre of civilians in the town of Moura (centre) where, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch, some 300 civilians were executed at the end of March.
These “serious accusations” by Emmanuel Macron are likely to “awaken ethnic hatred” in Mali where, Bamako acknowledges, “in recent years the social fabric has been degraded due to community conflicts.” “It is important that President Macron constantly reminds of the negative role and responsibility of France in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda,” said spokesman Maïga.
Relations between Paris and Bamako have deteriorated drastically over the last year. After nine years of military presence in Mali, through Operation Serval and then Barkhane, France was expelled by the Malian military authorities, six months after the arrival of the Wagner group paramilitaries.
Source: BFM TV
