France was urged by the Malian government to pull out its soldiers stationed within West Africa. “without delay”After President Emmanuel Macron’s Thursday announcement that French soldiers would return home in the next months, Friday saw the official declaration of French troops.
“In view of these repeated breaches of defense agreements, the government invites the French authorities to withdraw, without delay,”On Friday, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, spokesperson for the Mali government said that.
Maiga called the French withdrawal “a” “flagrant violation”They have signed agreements.
Macron said that French troops would be leaving Mali after a nearly ten year-long operation, but denied it was a failure.
“We can’t remain militarily engaged alongside de-facto authorities whose strategy and hidden aims we do not share,”He spoke out amid worsening ties to the Malian military junta.
In January, the junta told France to rein in its “colonial reflexes” as Mali’s leaders requested that Danish forces leave the African nation, which continues to be afflicted by an ongoing jihadist insurgency.
After Mali suffered two coups within two years, the ties between Paris and Bamako went downhill. The ruling junta also reneged its promises to hold elections in February.
Mali expelled the French Ambassador in late January.
Operation Barkhane, which was started by French troops, began in 2014. It was partnered with five Sahel former colonies (Burkina Faso Chad Mali Mali Mauritania and Niger) as well as support from a handful of European states.
The coalition’s aim was to stop the region becoming a safe haven for Islamist terrorist groups; however, Macron announced in July 2021 that the operation would end in the first quarter of 2022.
France tried to get new partners aboard to combat Islamist insurgents operating in the Sahel area of Africa. The creation of Takuba (an European task force) was a recent example of this. Norway, Portugal Portugal, Romania, Lithuania, and Lithuania sent troops this year to Mali.
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