Mali calls into question the defense and military cooperation agreement with France

Troop transport vehicles from Operation Barkhane, in Burkina Faso, in November 2019. AFP via Getty Images - MICHELE CATTANI

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The Prime Minister of the Malian transition recently declared that the clauses of this agreement signed in 2014 will be reviewed.

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With our special correspondent in Bamako,

At the end of December, the French authorities were officially asked to renegotiate the defense agreements which bind the two countries.

Signed for the first time at the start of Operation Barkhane, they were nevertheless renewed last year for five years.

These defense agreements between a country and a foreign nation are essentially legal agreements.

They are there to guarantee the protection of French soldiers and also to make military operations more fluid by allowing freedom of movement.

And it is this freedom of movement that the Malian government wants to renegotiate.

Last week, Bamako

by a logistics transport plane from Operation Barkhane.

To renegotiate is equivalent to putting a spoke in the French wheels, we say in Paris.

France is precisely trying to save time.

The response to the Malian authorities is being worked out, it is said, while specifying that the Malians did not ask for the termination of the agreements, but for simple amendments.

The negotiation is just beginning.

Barkhane: four French soldiers injured by an explosive device in Burkina Faso

Four French soldiers were injured, including one seriously, in Burkina Faso when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded as their vehicle passed by in the north of the country, the French general staff announced on Tuesday evening. . The attack occurred in the Gourma desert, not far from the Burkina-Mali border, during a classic Barkhane reconnaissance mission conducted with their counterparts in the Burkinabè armed forces. The region is under the control of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Military patrols are therefore frequent.

On Tuesday, the pick-up type all-terrain vehicle, therefore unarmored, of Barkhane soldiers exploded on a concealed device, at the exit of Ouahigouya airport.

The pick-up, a light and all-purpose means of transport, is very often used by the special forces.

All the occupants of the vehicle were affected by the explosion and quickly evacuated to the Gao base before being repatriated.

The vital prognosis of one of the soldiers is engaged, but his condition is stable, underlines the staff of the armies.

Last September Sergeant Maxime Blasco was killed in action in Ndaki, Mali, just across the border.

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