The French president called on Tuesday to this “that the state returns” in Mali, in a context of strong tensions with the country of the Sahel, where Paris is reducing its military system.
Bamako convened, Tuesday, October 5, the French ambassador after the words judged “regrettable” of President Emmanuel Macron against the military junta in power.
“The minister invited the French authorities to the restraint, avoiding value judgments,” commented on the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. The text castigates Emmanuel Macron’s “unlimstant and deobligent words” and expresses a “long protest against these regrettable words”.
Emmanuel Macron called Tuesday to this “that the state returns” in Mali, in a context of strong tensions with the Sahelian country, where France is reducing its military system.
“The state must come back with its justice, its education, its police everywhere, particularly in Mali”, where wholelands of territory remain to themselves against jihadists, intercommunity tensions and traffic. , he said.
“Focus on the essential”
Before that, the French president qualified last Thursday of “shame” the accusations of “abandonment in theft” of Mali by France brought by the Prime Minister of Transition, Choguel Kokalla Maïga, the United Nations forum .
Malian diplomacy, in its communiqué, call France to “focus on the essential, including the fight against terrorism in the Sahel”.
In the Sahel, where it intervenes militarily since 2013 against jihadist groups, France undertook in June to reorganize its military system, with a reduction of its workforce by 2023 to about 3,000 men, against more than 5 000 today.
On September 24, France lost a 52nd soldier in the Sahel since 2013, with the death of Caporal-Chief Maxime Blasco, killed in battle in the Gossi area, near the border between Mali and Burkina Faso .
Paris sees its challenged influence in Mali, especially by Moscow. The Malian junta in power is considering using the services of the Russian paramilitary of the Sulfur Private Society Wagner. But a presence of these “mercenaries” would be “incompatible” with the maintenance of the French military presence in Mali, keeps warning Paris.