On February 2, 2013, French President François Hollande was cheered in the Malian cities of Timbuktu and Bamako. While traveling in the country, he came to celebrate alongside the Malian authorities the success of the military operation “Serval”, led by France, which had then made it possible to roll back a jihadist insurgency in northern Mali.
But eight years later, the time is over for celebrations. In Mali, the demonstrations calling for the departure of the French troops, today present within the framework of the operation “Barkhane”, multiply. The Malian authorities are also hostile towards the French government, as shown by the expulsion of the French ambassador to Mali, Joël Meyer, announced on January 31.
Elise Vincent is a journalist at World defense specialist; she explains to us in this episode of “The Hour of the World” how Operation “Barkhane” came to this.
An episode produced by Cyrielle Bedu, directed by Amandine Robillard and presented by Jean-Guillaume Santi.
“The Hour of the World”
“L’Heure du Monde” is the daily news podcast of the World. Listen every day, from 6 a.m., to a new episode, on Lemonde.fr or on Spotify. Find all the episodes here.