France suspended its anti -terrorism cooperation with Mali and summoned two Malian diplomats to leave their territory, in response to the arrest in August in Bamako of a French diplomatic agent, AFP learned this Friday 19 Sprum of the French diplomatic source.
The two diplomats, members of the Embassy and the Mali consulate in Paris, were “Non Grata and until Saturday to leave the territory,” said the source.
On August 15, the Military Board in Power in Mali, a country in the usual Western Africa for prisoner political disorders for more than a decade to jihadist groups, had announced the arrest of a Frenchman suspected of working for the “French intelligence service.”
The authorities of President Assimi Goïta had accused “foreign states” of being behind an attempt to destabilize the institutions carried out by “a group of marginal elements of the Malian Security Armed Forces.”
The France Ministry of Foreign Affairs had denounced “accusations without foundation” and requested the “without delay” of its national, member of the French embassy.
Violation of International Law
“Mali deliberately violates one of the most fundamental rules of international law, with respect to a diplomatic agent duly accredited by the Malian authorities. Faced with an act of such severity and hostility, France has decided to suspend cooperation with Mali in the framework of the fight against terrorism in this country to which the agent was arbitrarily arrested,” French.
According to this source, the Malian authorities, informed of the French measures, reacted on Wednesday by declaring their part of the person who did not pleasant “five employees” of the French embassy, which had already left Mali on Sunday.
“We inform the Malian authorities, through their business official in Paris, that other measures would be implemented in the short term if our national did not free themselves,” added the source.
Two blows between 2020 and 2021
Faced since 2012 before a deep security crisis fed in particular by the violence of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the organization of the Islamic State (IS), as well as community criminal groups, Mali is led by a military board, which came to power after two state couples in 2020 and 2021.
Since then, Bamako’s authorities have diverted from their western partners, especially the former French colonizer, to become politically and militarily in Russia.
The Malian army and its allies, the Russian mercenaries of the Africa Corps, especially responsible for tracking jihadists, are regularly accused of committing abuse against civilians. Despite tense relations, cooperation remains to date between Malian and French intelligence services as part of the fight against terrorism.
Source: BFM TV
