The Senegalese Ministry of African Integration and Foreign Affairs summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to Dakar on Saturday after a video was posted on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian embassy in Dakar supporting recent deadly attacks against the Malian army and its Russian allies.
These clashes, which took place in Tinzaouatene, in northern Mali, between July 25 and 27, 2024, pitted the Malian armed forces and their Russian allies from the Africa Corps group (Wagner) against the rebels of the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-PDS) and the jihadists of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM).
The Ukrainian intelligence spokesman had claimed that his country provided information to the Tuareg rebels of the CSP in their clashes with the Malian Armed Forces and Russian instructors from Wagner.
In a statement, the Senegalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its surprise at the publication on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Embassy in Dakar of a propaganda video of the Ukrainian army, accompanied by a commentary by the Ukrainian ambassador himself. The statement denounces this publication as unequivocal support for the terrorist attack in northern Mali, perpetrated by Tuareg rebels and members of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) against the Armed Forces of Mali, resulting in significant loss of life.
Senegal, consistent in its position of constructive neutrality in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, cannot tolerate an attempt to transfer to its territory the media propaganda underway in this conflict. The country rejects terrorism in all its forms and does not accept under any circumstances any words or gestures that advocate terrorism, especially when they aim to destabilize a brother country like Mali.
