Mali: a junta official "advises" Florence Parly to be silent

Malian colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, minister and spokesman for the so-called transition government, delivered a virulent charge on Wednesday evening against Florence Parly and France, militarily engaged in Mali and the Sahel.

The senior junta official accuses the French government of seeking to divide Malians, "to instrumentalize" sub-regional organizations and to retain its "colonial reflexes".

The French minister accused the junta on Tuesday of multiplying "provocations". "We also invite Mrs. Parly to show more restraint and also to respect the elementary principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of a State", said Colonel Maïga. "We also invite him, it's advice, to make this sentence of Alfred de Vigny his own on the greatness of silence", he added, possible reference to the poem "La Mort du loup" by the French poet. of the 19th century. “Only silence is great; everything else is weakness,” the poem says. "When we try desperately to isolate Mali by exploiting sub-regional organizations, we finally wonder who is behind the provocation", he added, referring to the sanctions of ECOWAS, an economic organization which brings together a fifteen West African states.

This exit comes in the midst of the deterioration of relations between the two countries.

This deterioration has accelerated since the military who came to power in a putsch in August 2020 revoked their initial commitment to organize elections in February 2022 that would have returned civilians to the head of Mali.

They let it be known that they considered necessary several additional years at the helm of this country which has been plunged for years into a serious security and political crisis.

The organization of West African states ECOWAS imposed severe sanctions on Mali on January 9.

Mali calls for the withdrawal of Danish special forces

The colonel read the press release again asking Denmark "with insistence" to withdraw its special forces, recently deployed in Mali without having, according to the junta, the consent of the authorities, which Denmark, France and the European countries engaged in the fight contest. within the Takuba Special Forces Group.

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"We are not yet at the stage of the diplomatic incident, it may be misunderstandings between the government of Mali and the government of Denmark," he said.

But he said Bamako would have been entitled to an "apology from the Danish authorities".

He spoke of the "very good reputation" of Denmark in Mali because of its action in favor of development.

“We invite them to pay attention to certain partners who unfortunately find it difficult to shed colonial reflexes,” he added.