Mali’s army-led government on Friday asked France to withdraw its troops from the Sahel State “without delay,” calling into question Paris’ plans to pull out over several months.
A government spokesperson added in a statement announced on public television that the results of France‘s nine-year military engagement in conflict-torn Mali were “not satisfactory”.
France’s troops will leave Mali “in orderly fashion,” President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, in response to the demand from Bamako’s ruling junta to leave immediately.
Macron told a media conference after a summit in Brussels that, while the French soldiers will withdraw in line with his announcement a day earlier, they will do so in a way to continue providing protection for the UN stabilisation mission in Mali, MINUSMA, and other foreign forces in the country.
“I will not compromise for one second” on their security, Macron said.
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron had announced that he was withdrawing troops from Mali after a breakdown in relations with the nation’s ruling military junta.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply after Mali’s army seized power in a coup in 2020, and later defied calls to restore civilian rule swiftly.
The French pullout after nearly a decade is also set to see the smaller European Takuba force of special forces, created in 2020, leave Mali.
France currently has some 5,000 troops deployed across the Sahel as part of its anti-jihadist Barkhane force — the majority in Mali.
Macron had said the withdrawal would take place over four to six months.
Spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga called the French withdrawal a “flagrant violation” of accords between the two countries.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)