Mali's foreign minister accuses France of violating airspace, supporting militants

 Mali's foreign affairs minister on Tuesday said the military government would exercise its right to self-defence if France continued to undermine the West African country's sovereignty and national security.

Speaking at a United Nations Security Council briefing on Mali in New York, Minister Abdoulaye Diop repeated allegations that France had violated its airspace and delivered arms to Islamist militants that have been waging an offensive in northern Mali for the past decade.

France has denied this. Its relations with Mali have soured since an August 2020 coup and it is withdrawing troops sent in 2013 to help fight the insurgency.