For Mali’s military junta, the French president has incurred “defamation” by linking said battalion with the country’s authorities
The military junta in power in Mali today accused the president of France, Emmanuel Macron of “defamation” and arousing “ethnic hatred” in the African country after statements by the French president during his tour this week in several African countries.
In a statement, the transitional government accuses Macron of “wrong accusations” against Bamako referring to the links between the Russian Wagner military group and the Malian authoritieswho also accused them of “exercising violence against an ethnic group”.
During his trip to Guinea-Bissau, Macron considered last Thursday in a press conference that the “de facto” complicity between the military junta and the Wagner group couldn’t fight him terrorism.
“The transitional government strongly condemns these hateful and defamatory words of the French president, and takes national and international opinion as a witness regarding these serious accusations that will arouse ethnic hatred and attempt against coexistence, cohesion and harmony among Malians”reads the note.
The military junta also accused France of “always work for the division” of the African country.
At the end of last January, the Malian transitional government expelled the French ambassador, Joël Meyer, after French officials, including the Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, question the legitimacy of the ruling military junta in Mali.
Furthermore, the Malian authorities They definitively withdrew last April the broadcasting license to the Gallic media Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France24, after accusing them of spreading false information about the Malian Army.
On May 2, the military junta declared the defense cooperation treaty to be broken that it signed with the French government in 2014, as well as those that determine the status of the French anti-terrorist forces of the Barkhane and Takuba missions, which France later gradually withdrew from the country.
The Malian state, governed by a military junta after two coups in less than a year, does not control large areas of the country, specifically the north and center, where the central administration is practically absent while attacks perpetrated by different jihadist groups.