On Monday, Mali’s ruling military junta unilaterally terminated the ‘Defense Cooperation Treaty’ with France and the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with European forces, citing “flagrant violations” of Mali’s sovereignty.
Government of Mali has ended defence/ military cooperation agreements with France pic.twitter.com/bW8INFaVo2
— Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) May 3, 2022
The junta has also accused the French army of “espionage” and “subversion” after it released footage of Russian paramilitary company Wagner Group allegedly digging fake mass graves near the French base of Gossi to ‘implicate’ French troops.
Furthermore, Mali said that France had violated its airspace on multiple occasions.
Mali accuses France of "spying" and "subversion" after French army released footage allegedly showing Russian mercenaries digging holes for mass graves near its former military base pic.twitter.com/eEik5zN00A
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) April 26, 2022
Moreover, increasing anti-French sentiment in the Sahel and the expulsion of the French ambassador in January have added to the growing hostility.
Keeping this in mind, junta spokesperson Col. Abdoulaye Maiga noted “a profound deterioration in military cooperation with France.”
The decision effectively ends the Barkhane and Takuba counterterrorism missions, with Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop saying that France no longer has any “legal basis” to conduct operations in Mali. It is also expected to impact the United Nation’s peacekeeping mission in the country, MINUSMA, whose 14,000-strong contingent includes several European troops.
Junta spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga has clarified that termination of SOFA will take place immediately while the termination of the defence agreement with France will take six months.
Mali to cease all military cooperation and terminate all treaties with France effective in six months https://t.co/Qy2lYFfMb1 pic.twitter.com/oVFHklIGdO
— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) May 3, 2022
The agreements formed the basis of the framework for France’s intervention in Mali in 2014 to counter offensives by militant groups. The 2013 agreement defined the presence of French forces, including those involved in the Barkhane counterterrorist operation; the 2014 defence agreement defined military cooperation between Paris and Bamako; and the third agreement defined the status of European forces deployed in the Takuba Task Force.
France has responded by calling the termination of the agreements “unjustified,” while the European Union (EU) said it was “regrettable.” EU spokesperson Peter Stano said there is an imperative for international and Malian forces to join hands to “combat the terrorist threat” in the country and indeed in the Sahel region at large. He went on to say that it “is not conducive to a peaceful climate and to the cooperation that we all need in order to confront terrorist movements.”
🔴Mali Accuses France Of Spying🔴
— The Insight Factor (@insightfactor) April 28, 2022
The military-led government of Mali has accused France of spying on its forces. Mali's military alleges that France has on numerous occasions breached its airspace by flying a drone in its territory pic.twitter.com/YKnumj6pj3
The decision comes amid a massive deterioration in ties between the Malian junta, which carried out coups in August 2020 and May 2021, and its European partners, particularly France. In fact, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the coordinated withdrawal of French and allied troops from the Barkhane and Takuba missions due to “multiple obstructions” by the ruling junta.
A joint statement read: “The political, operational and legal conditions are no longer met to effectively continue their current military engagement in the fight against terrorism in Mali.”
Macron added, “We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de-facto authorities whose strategy and hidden aims we do not share.” He thus announced, “The heart of this military operation will no longer be in Mali but in Niger.”
He noted that French Sabre special forces would remain deployed in Burkina Faso and that France would also look to increase cooperation with Chad.
Similarly, in April, the EU suspended training missions in Mali and said it would redeploy its forces to other countries in the Sahel region.
Mali has refused international calls to return the country to civilian rule. In fact, in February, lawmakers in its military-led transitional government voted 120-1 to extend the junta’s rule by at least five years.
At the same time, it has been accused of giving a free hand to Russian paramilitary forces from Wagner Group, which has around 1,100 troops deployed in the country. In fact, early last month, Human Rights Watch released a report alleging the Malian troops and foreign paramilitaries had killed up to 300 civilians as part of a supposed counterterrorism operation in the town of Moura in March. The rights group described it as the “worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s decade-long armed conflict” against groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).
Mali, on the other hand, has insisted that the Russian mercenaries are merely providing intelligence information. Furthermore, it has said that the basis of its relationship with the Wagner Group lies in the fact that France terminated joint operations with Malian forces in June 2021 and pulled its troops out of the West African state in February 2022 without consulting with Malian partners.
Against this backdrop, on Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for a swift return to civilian rule in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, all of which have experienced military coups over the past two years.
Germany, meanwhile, has said it is willing to keep its troops deployed in Mali as part of the MINUSMA UN peacekeeping mission. Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said Berlin is willing to continue its participation in the mission “under some conditions.”
France first deployed troops to the region on January 11, 2013, when the Malian government asked for help to block the advances of jihadists and Tuareg towards the capital, Bamako. In 2014, France launched Operation Barkhane, deploying 5,500 soldiers to Mali, Niger, and Chad in partnership with Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad. Jihadist attacks have become more frequent since 2013, with the conflict spilling over in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, contributing to an acute humanitarian crisis.
According to the French defence ministry, Operation Barkhane has three military bases in Mali—in Gao, Menaka, and Gossi. Outside Mali, France also has military bases in Niamey, Niger and N’Djamena, Chad.
In the last quarter of 2021, French forces were recalled from Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu. Consequently, in January 2022, mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group moved into the Timbuktu camp.
Both the EU and the United States have opposed the presence of Russian mercenaries in Mali. France has condemned the deployment of Wagner troops in the country and said that the presence of “predatory” private mercenaries in the country will lead to regional instability.
The Wagner Group has been deploying mercenaries to several African countries, including the Central African Republic, Libya, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Sudan. Regional governments have offered the group money and lucrative deals to extract their country’s natural resources in return for help in combating local insurgencies.