In a brief press release during the television news, a little after 8 p.m. Dakar time, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, government spokesman, on national television, announced that he was breaking the defense agreements with France.
This denunciation, carrying out a threat that has been agitated for weeks, constitutes a new manifestation of the deterioration of relations between the authorities dominated by the soldiers who came to power by force in August 2020 and the former allies of Mali in the fight against the jihadists. .
The Malian authorities have decided to break the Status of Force Agreements, or Sofa, which set the legal framework for the presence in Mali of the French Barkhane and European Takuba forces, as well as the defense cooperation treaty. concluded in 2014 between Mali and France.
(RE)read: France-Mali defense agreements: what are we talking about?
“For some time the government of the Republic of Mali has noted with regret a profound deterioration in military cooperation with France”developed Colonel Maïga.
In particular, he cited “unilateral attitude” of France during the suspension in June 2021 of joint operations between French and Malian forces, the announcement in February 2022, “still without any consultation of the Malian side”the withdrawal of the Barkhane and Takuba forces, and the “multiplies violations” Malian airspace by French aircraft despite the establishment by the authorities of a no-fly zone over a large part of the territory.
This announcement comes in a climate of strong tension between France and Mali.
The discovery of a mass grave in Gossi is one of the last episodes in the deterioration of relations between the two countries. The French general staff claims to have filmed mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group burying bodies, to accuse the Barkhane force. On the side of Bamako, an investigation has been opened, and the authorities consider France guilty of espionage and subversion.
On April 27, RFI and France 24, banned from broadcasting since March 17, were definitively suspended.
The denunciation of these agreements raises questions as to its repercussions on the current withdrawal in particular of Barkhane, announced in February as the culmination of months of escalating tensions. This important and dangerous operation, after nine years of engagement since 2013, is supposed to last four to six months.