Wed 06 October 2021:
Mali has summoned France’s ambassador to express its “indignation” at French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent criticism of Mali’s government, which is controlled by military officials.
Since it was revealed that the Sahel state is in talks with Russian mercenaries, tensions between France and its former colony Mali have been high.
On Tuesday, Mali expressed its displeasure to the French ambassador.
Last month, during the United Nations General Assembly, Mali’s temporary prime minister, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, accused France of a “sort of abandonment in full flight” over its plan to cut its military presence in the semi-arid Sahel area.
Macron later told French media that Maiga’s comments were “unacceptable” and suggested that Mali’s government was “not even really one” – because of the coup in Mali led by Colonel Assimi Goita in May.
On Tuesday, Macron urged Mali’s ruling military to re-establish state control in large areas of the country that had been abandoned in the face of the armed revolt.
“It’s not the role of the French army to fill in for the ‘non-work’, if I may describe it, of the Malian state,” he told French media.
Mali’s foreign ministry announced later Tuesday that Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop had summoned France’s ambassador to express the Malian government’s “indignation and disapproval” of Macron’s remarks.
“The minister called on the French authorities to show restraint, avoiding value judgements,” the statement said, adding that Mali wanted a “constructive approach based on mutual respect”.
After armed rebels gained control of the north the previous year, France intervened in Mali in 2013. Since then, Paris has sent tens of thousands of troops to the Sahel to put down the insurgency.
Despite the presence of the military, unrest has spread throughout central Mali as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands have killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced in Mali, while large swaths of the country have little or no state presence.
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