The transitional authorities believe this Friday that “the results obtained” by operations Serval, Barkhane and Takuba “have not been satisfactory” and demand that the French forces leave the country immediately.
After the announcement of the withdrawal of French and European forces from Mali on Thursday, the reaction of the Malian authorities was particularly awaited. It took the form of a press release read on national television by the government spokesman, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, this Friday noon.
Its offensive tone is in line with previous statements by the junta in power in Bamako since the overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in the summer of 2020. Engaged in an increasingly deleterious verbal escalation with French diplomacy, the putschists refuse to leave the last word to Paris.
Negative own balance sheet
The Malian government “take note” of the end of operations Barkhane and Takuba but qualifies it as “unilateral decision by the French authorities” – despite the precautions of the Elysée, which had wanted to give a European dressing to the announcement – and the judge “in violation of the agreements binding France and Mali”. The junta recalls that the previous French decisions on the matter (the suspension of joint operations with the Malian army after the second putsch, then the decline in Barkhane’s workforce in June) had already been taken. “without notice and without consultation of the Malian party”. A grievance that she often addressed to Paris.
Visibly very angry, the Malian transitional authorities go so far as to draw up their own – negative – assessment of the nine years of French intervention in Mali, “which would not have been necessary if NATO had not intervened in Libya”, they recall. In 2012, part of the rebels entered Mali, over-armed, after the fall of Colonel Gaddafi. “The results obtained were not satisfactory, neither in 2013 with Operation Serval nor in 2016 with Operation Barkhane: despite the presence of Operation Barkhane and international forces, Mali risked partition, and the terrorist threat initially localized in the north of Mali has spread throughout the national territory”, deplores the press release.
Incompressible calendar
During his televised reading, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga especially insisted on a passage: “In view of these repeated breaches of the defense agreements, the government invites the French authorities to withdraw, without delay, the Barkhane and Takuba forces from national territory, under the supervision of the Malian authorities.” The officer took the liberty of re-reading the sentence live. Then repeat it “once again”. In case the message was misunderstood. It is no longer France that takes the initiative to leave Mali, but Mali that sends France back, the putschists mean, in line with their sovereignist posture.
This withdrawal “without delay” seems difficult to reconcile with the calendar of “four to six months” announced the day before by Emmanuel Macron, and presented as incompressible, logistically, by the staff. Asked about this at the closing press conference of the Africa-EU summit in Brussels, the French president replied a few minutes later: France will withdraw. “in good order” and will not compromise “one second on safety” of his soldiers. Before throwing, in turn, a last spade: “I would like no one to forget in the region that the priority must remain the fight against terrorism.”