Mali was blindsided by France’s decision to withdraw its troops from the country and had to enlist help from others to “fill the gap”, PM Choguel Kokalla Maiga said amid criticism over inviting Russian contractors.
“The new situation resulting from the end of Operation Barkhane puts Mali before a fait accompli – abandoning us, mid flight to a certain extent,” Maiga said as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday.
Operation Barkhane, a France-led military campaign against Islamist insurgents in Mali that started in 2014 is set to wrap up early next year. Announcing the end of the operation back in July, French President Emmanuel Macron said that it would draw to a close “in an orderly fashion.”
Maiga indicated that this was far from being the case, however. Speaking on Saturday, the Malian PM claimed that France kept Bamako in the dark about its intentions, and made the decision without any prior consultation with the Malian authorities.
“The unilateral aspect of withdrawal of Barkhane and [its] transformation did not take into account the tripartite link between us, that is between the UN and Mali as partners with France in combating elements of destabilization,” Maiga said.
Noting that the security situation in Mali has “scarcely improved” since the 2012 miliary coup, despite the presence of the UN peacekeepers and international forces, including the French troops, Maiga said that the country had to resort to third parties for assistance.
It [the situation] leads us to explore pathways and means to better ensure our security autonomously, or with other partners to fill the gap, which will certainly result from the withdrawal of Barkhane from the north of the country
While Maiga has not addressed the controversy surrounding Mali’s reported intention to hire as many as 1,000 mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed earlier on Saturday that Bamako indeed was negotiating a deal with a Russia-based private security company.
At the same time, Lavrov dismissed accusations that Moscow was behind the talks, insisting that the Russian government had “nothing to do” with the arrangement.
The news that Mali had reached out to the Russian mercenaries, notorious for their involvement in Syria and Africa, sparked backlash from several European countries, threatening to reconsider their deployment. Responding to a question by RT’s Caleb Maupin, Lavrov revealed that the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told him to stay out of Africa, calling the continent “our place.” Describing the thinly-veiled warning as “deeply insulting,” the Russian minister argued that Moscow and Europe should mount a concerted effort to help the Sahel region out of the turmoil instead.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
source: RT
Împotriva articolelor redacției noastre, persoanele nemulțumite pot formula Contestație în termen de 10 zile de la publicarea articolului, la judecătoria Orășenească nr. 1 München Bayern Deutschland, in conformitate cu Legea federală Germană. Considerăm că nu se pot formula acțiuni la instanțele din România deoarece nici o persoană care activează în trustul nostru nu poate fi extrasă de sub jurisdicția federală germană. Considerăm că redacția noastră nu răspunde în fața autorităților din România ci doar celor federale sau civile germane. deoarece legea română nu are efecte de extraneitate asupra redacției chiar dacă subiectul știrilor face obiectul unor evenimente sau persoane din România și sunt scrise în limba română. Limba română nu este izvor de extraneitate a legii.
absolvent WEB DESIGN Academia Britanică de Comunicare Iasi - absolvent COMUNICARE IN AFACERI Academia Britanica de Afaceri si Comunicare -absolvent JURNALISM EDITORIAL - London School University - 2019 inscris la echivalare diploma la Universitatea Politehnica Timisoara - absolvent studii de Drept Universitatea Europeană Drăgan, cursuri in Drept la Universitatea de Vest Timisoara, absolvent studii de proiectare, pastor coordonator in Biserica Protestanta Evanghelica,
Android Developer pe Google Play și plugin developer la Oxwall, creator de teme Wordpress și Oxwall, operator Wordpress, Drupal, Oxwall, Osclass, Moodle, tehnologii HTML și PHP
French President Emmanuel Macron has refused to rule out mandatory Covid-19 vaccination as millions of French people remain unvaccinated despite a rise in cases. Upon being asked by the French television channels TF1 and LCI on Wednesday whether vaccination against Covid-19 would become mandatory in the future, Macron replied, “This hypothesis exists,” before noting that […]
A cleaner for Israel’s defense minister has been accused of espionage after allegedly offering to place malware on his boss’ household computer for an Iran-linked hacking group. In a statement on Thursday, the Shin Bet security service said that Omri Goren, a housekeeper for Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and a former bank robber according to […]
France has reported 59,019 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, which is the highest number since April, the national agency for public health said. Hospitalizations have also been on the rise. New daily infections surpassed 59,000 for the first time since April 8, when the nation saw a whopping 84,999 new cases – […]
