MALI/FRANCE: Mali says France violated its airspace and supplied weapons to Islamist militants in a bid to destabilise the West African country, the latest in a flurry of accusations that marked a bitter end to their once-close relationship.
In a letter to the UN Security Council President on Monday, Mali Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said its airspace had been violated more than 50 times this year, mostly by French forces using drones, military helicopters and fighter jets.
“These flagrant violations of Malian airspace were used by France to collect information for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and to drop arms and ammunition on them,” the letter said.
The French government has denied an accusation by the Malian government of supporting and supplying arms and other dangerous weapons to the terrorist groups in the West African country, Mali.
Reacting to the allegation by the Malian government, the French embassy in Mali in a Twitter thread denied that France has never in any way supported or financed terrorist groups.
It’s further stated that French soldiers have helped in eliminating hundreds of armed groups in Mali to improve the Malians’ security architecture. It also added that 53 French troops had died in the process.
“France has never supported, directly or indirectly, these terrorist groups, which remain its designated enemies across the planet,” the statement reads.
However, several bodies, including Malian authority and German UN Armies, have claimed they have evidence of France supplying weapons to armed groups. The evidence it has refused to present to the UN authority for further investigation.
In February, France announced the end of its nine-year counterinsurgency efforts in Mali, amid growing tensions with the country’s military junta, which overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in 2020 and later abandoned commitments to hold elections and restore civilian rule.
The French government has therefore announced the total withdrawal of its security forces in the West African country with immediate effect.
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