Parly arrived in Mali on Sunday following reports indicating that the country’s military government is close to sealing a deal for 1,000 mercenaries.
The minister, who said she was travelling to the country to reiterate her government's opposition to Wagner, reaffirmed France’s “unwavering support” in the fight against terrorism in Mali and the Sahel.
“For eight years, France, at the request of the Malian authorities, has chosen to support Mali in the fight against armed terrorist groups. France has chosen to unite its partners around a common vision with and for Mali,” she told reporters after meeting with Mali's Defense Minister Sadio Camara.
Noting that their discussions were “frank, direct and complete,” Parly however added that “We will not be able to cohabit with mercenaries.”
On Sunday, Mali's Foreign Ministry in a statement said it “objected to any state making its choices.”
France sent troops to Mali in 2013 after unrest broke out in the north of the country.
But relations between the two countries deteriorated following a coup in August 2020 which toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
France suspended military cooperation with Mali in June, and French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would close bases in northern Mali and draw down the presence of French troops in the Sahel region.
The United Nations has 13,000 peacekeepers in the country.
Last week, Malian interim Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga indicated that talks between his government and Wagner were motivated by the French drawdown.
“There are partners who have decided to leave Mali to withdraw to other countries. There are areas that are abandoned,” he said.
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France will maintain its military presence in Mali, visiting French Defence Minister Florence Parly said here on Monday, following a meeting with her Malian counterpart, Colonel Sadio Camara.
ReplyDelete"France will not leave Mali and remains determined in the fight against terrorism," she said, referring to her visit as part of the move to strengthen military cooperation between the two countries.
"For the past eight years, France has chosen, at the request of the Malian authorities, to accompany Mali in the fight against armed terrorist groups. France has chosen to suffer and unite its partners around a common vision with and for Mali," said Parly.
It is time to "evolve the system by increasing cooperation" to help the restructuring of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa), she said, adding that it is "imperative today to reinsure FAMa of the air support provided from France and its partners."
Her visit came at a time of great controversy about a possible contract between Mali and the Russian group Wagner which stipulates that 1,000 Russian mercenaries should soon be deployed in the country.
France and Germany have warned that a deployment of paramilitaries of the Russian group would call into question their military engagement in Mali.
Since 2012, Mali has been facing a severe crisis in terms of security, politics and economy. The independence uprisings, the jihadist incursions and the inter-communal violence have caused thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced, despite the presence of the United Nations, French and European task forces.