The African nation has threatened to exercise its right to self-defense, citing repeated French “Aggression acts”
Mali has urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to put an end to alleged “acts of aggression” by France, accusing Paris of arming and collecting information for terrorist groups operating in Mali’s Sahel region.
French helicopters, drones and fighter jets broke into Malian airspace more than 50 times in this past year to ensure that the country was secure. “collect information for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and to drop arms and ammunition to them,”Abdoulaye Diop, foreign affairs minister wrote a Monday letter to UN that was published Wednesday.
Diop claimed that the flights were engaged in “Activities considered espionage” as well as intimidation and that the Malian government has evidence proving France had both collected intelligence for and supplied arms to some of the same jihadist groups it has supposedly been fighting for nearly a decade. He said that France could have sent two members from a jihadist organization by helicopter to Timbuktu, in the early part of August.
Mali is a serious problem “reserves the right to use self-defense”If the French continued to violate its sovereignty according the UN Charter’s UN Charter Charter, Diop asked the UN Security Council President, China, for his claims in order to call an emergency meeting.
French soldiers arrived to Mali at the request of the government in 2013. They defeated Islamists who took over northern parts of the country. Paris spent billions on Operation Barkhane which saw it expand its jihadi hunter project to Burkina Faso (Chad), Mauritania and Niger – all of them former French colonies.
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Following a 2021 military coup, Mali’s new government ordered the French to leave, and in May canceled its defense accords with France and five neighboring African countries, alleging “flagrant violations” of its sovereignty. Last French soldiers left Mali last week. France has an airbase and detachment at Chad, and plans to maintain a special forces contingent there.
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