Colonel Abdoulaye MaigaOn Saturday, Mali’s interim prime minister violently attacked the French government on the UN platform, which he described as a “junta”, as well as several African officials and the UN Secretary-General.
Referring to the withdrawal of French soldiers from Barkhane’s forces in Mali, he said in his speech to the UN 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 humanistic legacy of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, have turned into a junta in the service of obscurantism”, declared, three times, Colonel Maïga appointed first interim minister in August by the head of the Malian junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta.
Accusing France of “neocolonial, condescending, paternalistic and revanchist practice”, he instead praised “the exemplary and fruitful relations of cooperation between Mali and Russia”.
The accusation of neo-colonialism is a constant in Bamako and Moscow.
The interim premier rejected the statements of the 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 were not ‘mercenaries’ , contradicting the allegations. “Let me express my profound disagreement with you following your recent media outing”, the colonel launched, describing the matter as “bilateral and judicial”. Although this case has turned into a diplomatic crisis between the two neighboring countries, he felt it “does not fall within the remit of the UN Secretary General”.
“Mr. Secretary General, Mali will draw all the legal consequences of its actions”, he added, before reiterating his request for reform of the UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the Minusma, under review by the UN.
‘We must recognize that almost 10 years after its establishment, the objectives for which Minusma was deployed in Mali have not been achieved. And this, despite the numerous resolutions of the Security Council. For this reason, the Malian government reiterates its request, expressed several times, for a change of paradigm, for an adaptation of the Minusma to the environment in which it is deployed and for a better articulation of this mission with the Malian authorities’, he declared. and denounced in passing “the negative external influences and attempts to exploit certain entities legally present in Mali, at the service of hidden agendas (…) for the purpose of destabilization”.
Hundreds of Togolese peacekeepers have participated in the United Nations Force in Mali since its creation.
Colonel Maïga also harshly criticized several African leaders, such as Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum, whom he accused of not being Nigerian, or Ivorian head of state Alassane Ouattara, describing the “maneuver” that allows a president to “keep power for himself and his clans by amending the Constitution to obtain a third term.
It is useful to remember that Mali is controlled by the military after two successive coups.
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