Hopefully this doesn't get censored again:
From: https://www.rt.com/news/561059-mali-unsc-france-supports-terrorism/Mali seeks UN help to stop France abetting ‘terrorists’
The African nation has threatened to exercise its right to self-defense, citing repeated French “acts of aggression”Mali has urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to put an end to alleged “acts of aggression” by France, accusing Paris of arming and collecting information for terrorist groups operating in Mali’s Sahel region.
French drones, helicopters and fighter jets breached Malian airspace over 50 times this year alone in order to “collect information for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and to drop arms and ammunition to them,” foreign affairs minister Abdoulaye Diop wrote in a letter to the UN dated Monday and published on Wednesday.
Diop claimed that the flights were engaged in “activities considered to be espionage” as well as intimidation and that the Malian government has evidence proving France had both collected intelligence for and supplied arms to some of the same jihadist groups it has supposedly been fighting for nearly a decade. Specifically, he alleged, France may have transported two members of a jihadist group by helicopter to the Timbuktu region in early August.
Warning that Mali “reserves the right to use self-defense” if the French continue violating its sovereignty under the UN Charter, Diop called on the UN Security Council president, China, to use his claims as the basis for an emergency meeting of the council.
French soldiers arrived in Mali in 2013 at the invitation of the government and successfully routed the Islamist forces who had taken over the northern part of the country. Paris subsequently poured billions of dollars into what became known as Operation Barkhane, expanding its jihadi-hunting project across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger - all former French colonies.
Following a 2021 military coup, Mali’s new government ordered the French to leave, and in May canceled its defense accords with France and five neighboring African countries, alleging “flagrant violations” of its sovereignty. The last French soldiers left the Mali this week, though France maintains an airbase in Niger and a detachment in Chad and hopes to keep a special forces contingent in Burkina Faso.
From: https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/08/18/687590/Mali-accuse-France-arming-terrorist-emergency-UN-meetingMali accuses France of arming terrorists, seeks emergency UN meeting
Thursday, 18 August 2022 6:08 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 18 August 2022 6:39 AM ]A protester holds a placard reading “France, gardener of terrorism” during a demonstration to mark France’s announcement of a withdrawal of French troops from Mali, in Bamako, on February 19, 2022. (Photo by AFP)Mali has requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting as the country has accused France of violating its airspace and delivering weapons to armed groups, an attempt considered to destabilize the West African country.
In a letter to the head of the United Nations Security Council on Monday, Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, said its airspace has been breached more than 50 times this year, mostly by French forces using drones, military helicopters, and fighter jets.
Malian authorities have “several pieces of evidence that these flagrant violations of Malian airspace were used by France to collect intelligence for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and to drop arms and ammunition to them,” the letter said.
Diop called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council in his letter in order to ensure that France “immediately ceases its acts of aggression,” in the form of the alleged violations of its sovereignty, support for terrorist groups, and spying.
“In the event of the persistence of this posture which undermines the stability and security of our country, Mali reserves the right to use self defense,” he said.
“France has obviously never supported, directly or indirectly, these terrorist groups, which remain its designated enemies across the planet,” said the French Embassy in Mali in a Twitter thread.
The Malian army says that after an attack on Tessit camp one week ago that claimed the lives of 42 Malian soldiers, “clandestine and uncoordinated overflight operations” were conducted.
The letter is the latest in a barrage of accusations that have strained the relationship between the West African country and its former colonizer. On Monday, France allegedly completed the withdrawal of its forces from Mali, ending a nine-year operation in the country.
A French mission began in Mali in 2013 to allegedly counter militants that Paris claimed were linked to the al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups. Accordingly, the French government deployed thousands of soldiers to purportedly prevent separatist forces from reaching Bamako.
The war caused several thousand deaths and more than a million people to flee their homes. There have been two military coups in roughly a year, amid growing demonstrations against France’s military presence.
France has been a former colonizer in Africa, and, after years of outright colonization, still seeks control over countries spread over more than 12 territories and treats their people as second-class citizens. It has had more than 50 military interventions in Africa since 1960, when many of its former colonies gained nominal independence.
As French troops were pulled out of Mali, the Malian military leaders said they invited “Russian trainers” to strengthen national defense. The swap has worried Western powers, who see their influence slipping in the Sahel.
Over the past few years, Russia has built military alliances with governments in African countries facing violent armed conflicts, including Libya, Mali, Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), and Mozambique. Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed possibly supplying food, fertilizers, and fuel to Mali in a call with the country’s interim president last week.
From:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/17/mali-accuses-france-of-arming-non-state-actorsMali accuses France of sending weapons to armed groups
In a letter to the UN, Malian official accuses France of arming non-state actors, as Paris rejects the allegation.
Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said Mali's airspace has been breached more than 50 times this year, mostly by French forces [File: Yuri KAadobnov/Pool via AFP]Published On 17 Aug 202217 Aug 2022Mali has accused France of violating its airspace and delivering weapons to armed groups, the latest in a barrage of accusations that have strained the relationship between the West African country and the former colonial power.
In a letter to the head of the United Nations Security Council dated Monday, Mali’s foreign affairs minister, Abdoulaye Diop, said its airspace has been breached more than 50 times this year, mostly by French forces using drones, military helicopters and fighter jets.
Keep reading
list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Al-Qaeda affiliate claims deadly Mali attack
list 2 of 3Mali’s army says 17 soldiers, 4 civilians killed in Tessit attack
list 3 of 3Mali says soldier death toll in Tessit attack has risen to 42
end of list“These flagrant violations of Malian airspace were used by France to collect information for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and to drop arms and ammunition to them,” the letter said, according to the news agency Reuters.
“France has obviously never supported, directly or indirectly, these terrorist groups, which remain its designated enemies across the planet,” said the French Embassy in Mali on Twitter.
It said that 53 French soldiers had died during its nine-year mission in Mali and that France had killed hundreds of members of armed groups in order to improve security for Malians.
Bamako has repeatedly accused Paris of attempting to destabilise the country, just as Russian mercenaries hired by the military government expand their reach in the country.
France on Monday completed the withdrawal of its troops from Mali, ending a nine-year operation in the country at the centre of the Sahel region’s spiralling security crisis.
Authorities in Bamako said they had evidence that France had supplied weapons to armed groups – which Paris spent a decade and billions of dollars trying to defeat – but did not provide any in the letter to the UN.
The accusations mark a new low in relations between Mali and the former colonial power, as Western powers see their influence slipping in the Sahel.
German UN soldiers said they saw Russian forces landing at the airport and unloading equipment on Monday in the northern town of Gao.
French forces were welcomed as heroes in Mali in 2013 when they beat back armed groups that had taken over the north, including the city of Timbuktu.
A series of setbacks and prolonged attacks by the armed groups have soured relations, which precipitated when a military junta overthrew the government in 2020 and later removed an interim civilian cabinet.
The ** was fuelled by French pressure for the military-led government to adopt a swift timeline for a return to civilian rule and a pivot by Bamako towards Moscow.
Mali’s military leaders have denied that Russian mercenaries have been deployed to the country, saying instead it had invited “Russian trainers” to strengthen national defence.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agenciesRelated
France announced withdrawal in February as relations with Bamako frayed in wake of military coups in 2020 and 2021.
The move comes in response to the Malian government’s refusal to give flyover rights to a UN peacekeeping mission.
Maiga is suffering from exhaustion after working for 14 months without break, his office says.
