Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, acting Prime Minister of Mali, violently attacked the French government on Saturday at the UN podium, which he described as a “junta”, as well as several African officials and the Secretary UN general. Referring to the withdrawal of French soldiers from the Barkhane force in Mali, he said during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly that Mali had been “stabbed in the back by the French authorities”.
“The French authorities, deeply anti-French for having denied universal moral values and betrayed the heavy humanist heritage of the Enlightenment philosophers, have transformed themselves into a junta at the service of obscurantism”, declared, three times, Colonel Maïga appointed interim Prime Minister in August by the head of the Malian junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta. Accusing France of “neocolonial, condescending, paternalistic and revanchist practice”, he on the other hand hailed “the exemplary and fruitful cooperation relations between Mali and Russia”.
Criticisms from several African officials
The interim Prime Minister has rejected the statements of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who said a few days ago during an interview with RFI and France 24 that the 46 Ivorian soldiers detained in Mali since the beginning of July n were not “mercenaries”, contradicting Bamako’s accusations. “Suffer that I express my deep disagreement with you following your recent media outing”, launched the colonel, qualifying the affair as “bilateral and judicial”.
While this case turned into a diplomatic crisis between the two neighboring countries, he felt that this “does not fall within the remit of the Secretary General of the United Nations”. “Mr. Secretary General, Mali will draw all the legal consequences of your actions”, he added, before repeating his request for a reform of the UN peacekeeping force in Mali. , the Minusma, being reviewed by the UN.
Colonel Maïga also sharply criticized several African leaders, such as Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, whom he accused of not being Nigerien, or Ivorian Head of State Alassane Ouattara, describing the “maneuver” allowing a President to “keep power for himself and his clan” by changing the Constitution to obtain a third term. He also accused the current president of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), Bissau-Guinean Umaro Sissoco Embalo, of “mimicry” of the United Nations.
“It is important to clarify to him that the Secretary General of the United Nations is not a head of state and the current president of ECOWAS is not a civil servant. Therefore, it would be appropriate that he does not trivialize ECOWAS,” he said.