The junta in power in Mali “demanded” on Sunday of French President Emmanuel Macron to put an end to “his neo-colonial posture” and silence his criticism against the Malian army, Accusing him of stirring up ethnic hatred.
“The transitional government requires President Macron to definitively abandon his neo-colonial, paternalistic and condescending stance to understand that no one can love Mali better than the Malians,” the government spokesman told public television, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga.
Mr. Maïga was reacting to what Mr. Macron said on Thursday in Bissau.
Evoking Mali, faced with a serious security crisis and theatre of two military coups in 2020 and 2021, Mr. Macron said that the responsibility of West African states was to work so that “the Malian people could (…) express their popular sovereignty” and “building the stability framework” to “effectively combat terrorist groups”.
“Since it is clear that the choices made by the Malian junta today 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 led us to leave Mali,’ he added.
The French force Barkhane is packing up in Mali.
Bamako, for its part, has always denied having called upon the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, present in Mali on a “commercial basis” according to Russia.
Source : SeneWeb
