“Mali’s junta calls on US to stop disinformation campaign after sanctions on officers”

By Le Figaro with AFP

Posted on 05/29/2023 at 08:19

Mali’s ruling junta on Sunday called on the United States to stop the disinformation campaign it claims it is waging after sanctions were imposed on two Malian officers whom Washington accuses of taking part in a massacre in the center of the country. in 2022.

The State Department last week announced visa restrictions on Moustapha Sangare, then commander of a parachute commando regiment, and Major Lassine Togola, commander of a special forces battalion. The two men “were responsible for elements of the Malian armed forces who carried out the operations in Mourasays the State Department.

The UN accused in early May the Malian army and combatants “strangersof executing at least 500 people in March 2022 during an anti-jihadist operation in Moura. Westerners, including the Americans, assure that these foreign fighters are members of the Russian private security company Wagner, whose actions have been decried in various countries.

The junta in power since 2020 denies the presence of Wagner and speaks of Russian army instructors deployed in the name of state-to-state cooperation. She dismissed the UN report as biased and claimed that only jihadists had been killed in Moura, and no civilians.

Along with the sanctions against the two Malian commanders, the US Treasury announced retaliatory measures against Ivan Maslov, whom it presents as Wagner’s leader in Mali.

The United States also accused Wagner of seeking to use Mali as an intermediary to send weapons to his fighters in Ukraine.

The Malian governmentlearned with amazement of the unilateral decision” of the American government to sanction the two Malian officers, “solely on the basis of the United Nations report“said his spokesperson, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga in a press release.

On May 25, Malian Foreign Affairs “invited” US Ambassador Rachna Korhonen to tell him “the extreme seriousness of the false accusations brought against the Republic of Mali“, he said.

The government “is upset by these actions which negatively impact bilateral cooperation“, he said. He “appeals to the government of the United States of America to stop the disinformation campaign against Mali“, did he declare.