The junta in power in Mali announced Monday evening to denounce the defense agreements with France and its European partners, castigating the “flagrant attacks” on the part of the French forces present in the country on national sovereignty and “multiple violations” of Malian airspace.
This denunciation, carrying out a threat that has been agitated for weeks, constitutes a new manifestation of the deterioration of relations between the authorities dominated by the soldiers who came to power by force in August 2020 and the former allies of Mali in the fight against the jihadists. .
A “deep deterioration of military cooperation”
The Malian authorities break the Status of Force Agreements, or Sofa, setting the legal framework for the presence in Mali of the French Barkhane and European Takuba forces, as well as the defense cooperation treaty concluded in 2014 between Mali and France, said Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, government spokesman, on national television.
“For some time the government of the Republic of Mali has noted with regret a profound deterioration in military cooperation with France,” he explained.
The Malian authorities notified this denunciation Monday afternoon to the French authorities and it will take effect six months after this notification, he specified.
On the other hand, it is with “immediate effect” that the Malian authorities denounce the Sofa of March 2013 framing the commitment of the French force Serval, then Barkhane, as well as the additional protocol of March 2020 applying to the European detachments of Takuba , the grouping of European special units initiated by France, he said. No official reaction was obtained initially in Paris.
What repercussions on the withdrawal of Barkhane?
The spokesperson for the Malian government notably cited France’s “unilateral attitude” during the suspension in June 2021 of joint operations between French and Malian forces, the announcement in February 2022, “again without any consultation of the Malian side”, the withdrawal of the Barkhane and Takuba forces, and the “multiple violations” of Malian airspace by French aircraft despite the establishment by the authorities of a no-fly zone over a vast part of the territory.
The denunciation of these agreements raises questions as to its repercussions on the current withdrawal in particular of Barkhane, announced in February as the culmination of months of escalating tensions. This important and dangerous operation, after nine years of engagement since 2013, is supposed to last four to six months.
Last week, the junta accused the French army of “espionage” and “subversion” after the broadcast by the French general staff of videos shot by a drone near the Gossi base (center) returned in April by France. Two days after this restitution, the French army had, to counter what it described as an “informational attack”, published a video of what it said were Russian mercenaries burying bodies near this base. to accuse France of war crimes.