While France is engaged in Mali to fight jihadism as part of Operation Barkhane, diplomatic relations between the two countries have been particularly tense for the past few days. The situation is such that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tiébilé Dramé, was sent to Paris on Thursday to smooth things over. It all started on Wednesday when the Malian ambassador to France, Toumani Djimé Diallo, accused French soldiers of "overflows" in the red light districts of Bamako.
Remarks before the Defense Committee of the French Senate
The diplomatic incident between Paris and Bamako resulted in the recall of the ambassador to his country. It must be said that his words, delivered before the Defense Committee of the French Senate, provoked the ire of Paris. According to France, these are "false and unacceptable". For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mali it is therefore now necessary to "calm the situation". The minister's visit to France "falls within the framework of strengthening the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries".
The Malian ambassador had been summoned earlier Thursday to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We expressed our indignation at his baseless and shocking words from a country allied in the fight against terrorism," it was said at the Quai d'Orsay. The part of the intervention that poses the most problem is when the ambassador declared that "at times, in the Pigalle of Bamako, you find them [the men of the Foreign Legion], tattooed all over their bodies, in the process of render an image that is not the one we know of the [French] army. It scares, it intrigues ».
However, the legionaries, mentioned explicitly by the diplomat, are absent from the Malian capital according to the staff. They "have no free time or rest time outside the operational bases" of Barkhane, located in the north of the country, had assured the French army. The cabinet of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, also recalled that there have been "almost no more French soldiers stationed in Bamako" since August 2014.
Frosty return
The day of his hearing, the Malian ambassador had already experienced a rather icy return from Senator Jean-Marc Todeschini, member of the Defense Commission. "I can only regret your words. You have stigmatized the French army, "he replied to the ambassador, believing that his words were going to" contribute "to the anti-French feeling that Mali was committed to countering.
The French soldiers, present in the region since 2013 to fight against the jihadists, have just seen their number drop from 4,500 to 5,100 in the face of the resurgence of attacks. This violence killed 4,000 people in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in 2019, five times more than in 2016, according to the UN. France itself lost 13 soldiers in an accident between two helicopters in operation in Mali in November. And Paris was openly annoyed at the end of 2019 with support deemed too timid on the part of the Sahelian authorities, including Mali.
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