The Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Joël Meyer, in office since October 2018, and “notified him of the decision of the government which invites him to leave the national territory within 72 hours”.
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France “take note” of the expulsion of its ambassador to Mali, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday (January 31st). Paris also expresses “its solidarity with its European partners, in particular Denmark”, whose contingent arrived as part of the international anti-jihadist operation Takuba has just been expelled by the junta in power in Bamako, “on the basis of unfounded motives”. The statement also recalls the “solidarity” of Paris with regard to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), whose representative in Mali was also expelled, as well as “its commitment to the stabilization and development of the Sahel”.
The Malian junta justified its decision to expel the French ambassador by the recent statements judged “hostile” of French officials against him. This episode marks a new hardening of tensions between Mali and France, a former colonial power engaged militarily against the jihadists in Mali and the Sahel since 2013. Relations have continued to deteriorate since colonels took by force in August 2020 the head of this country, plunged since 2012 into a deep security and political crisis. They escalated further in May 2021, with a new putsch by the same colonels to strengthen their hold.
Several presidential candidates reacted to the expulsion of the French ambassador to Mali. “France has lost a crazy influence in Africa”, said RN presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, on Europe1. According to her, “we must immediately dismiss the Malian ambassador”, “block all assets of Malian leaders in France” as well as “development aid to Mali” and “all transfers of financial funds, including individual transfers, from France to Mali”. According to Eric Zemmour (Reconquest!), “our soldiers are dying for a country that humiliates us! France’s entire African policy needs to be rethought”.
On the right, LR candidate Valérie Pécresse criticized a lack of anticipation from the executive, believing that “the dismissal of our ambassador is a humiliation”. According to her, France must remain “in the Sahel to protect this territory from the Islamist threat that can totally destabilize Africa”. On the left, the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has long been hostile to the presence of French troops in Mali, considers that he “It’s time for France to come back to reality and to empty the abscess with the current Malian power. And that the National Assembly be seized and decide on an action plan”, “before the sacrifices and our deaths in Mali were rendered in vain, before the tearing was complete”.