Mali’s prime minister has blasted France for attempting to divide his country during a foreign military mission against terrorist groups.
Choguel Kokalla Maiga, head of the government installed by the junta that came to power in June 2021, said the French intervention “later turned into a de facto partition of the country.”
In a 45-minute speech to diplomats, Maiga acknowledged the French military intervention in 2013 in his country purportedly curbed the militant groups who had captured the desert north; however, the terrorists were given a second chance to regroup and return to force in 2014 even though the presence of foreign military forces.
The prime minister focused on the deteriorating relations between his country and its former colonizer, and as he recalled the memory of the Second World War, he said,” Didn’t the Americans liberate France? When the French judged that (the US presence) was no longer necessary, they told the Americans to leave. ”
Mia added, “Did the Americans start insulting the French? ”
The anti-French sentiment is on the rise in West Africa as the security situation deteriorates despite the presence of French troops in the troubled region. France recently deployed more troops in the Sahel despite opposition to its presence there.
Tensions have been mounting after Mali expelled its French envoy two weeks ago over what the country described as “hostile and outrageous” comments by the former colonial power.
Thousands of anti-French protesters flocked to the streets in the Malian capital of Bamako celebrating the expulsion of the former colonizer’s envoy from the African country.
Paris pushed economic and other sanctions against the African country after the expulsion, with the European Union following suit by imposing sanctions on several Malian officials, including the prime minister.
The Malian authorities also accused France of colluding with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against the sovereignty of the territory.
The objective is, “to present ourselves like a pariah, with the unacknowledged and unacknowledged short-term objective of asphyxiating the economy in order to achieve, on behalf of who we know and by proxy, the destabilization, and overthrow of the institutions of the transition,” the prime minister further said.
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ECOWAS imposed a complete embargo against this poor African country on January 9 suspending all commercial and financial transactions while also freezing Mali’s assets from all financial assistance and transactions with all financial institutions.
Mali has become increasingly engulfed in violence since a Tuareg uprising in 2012 was hijacked by militants, who perpetrated ethnic killings and attacks on government forces and civilians.
Nearly 7,000 people died due to the fighting in Mali in 2020, according to the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data Project, while the UN declared late last year that more than two million people had been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict, a number that has quadrupled since 2019.
