This Friday morning in Paris, facing the French ambassadors, Catherine Colonna, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, sharply criticized the Malian authorities.
The ruling junta in Mali sails on sight, from failure to failure “, launched this Friday the head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna, three weeks after the military withdrawal of France after nine years of engagement in the country. A departure that does not seem to have eased tensions between the two countries. Bamako had accused Paris mid-August of acts of aggression.
“ In Mali, we see armed terrorist groups advancing across the country, Malians displaced by the thousands “, she said in front of the French ambassadors gathered in Paris for their annual conference.
” The regime, author of a double coup, attacks Denmark one day, the next day the Ivory Coast, and still France, in an attempt to make people forget that it is sailing on sight, failure in failure, harnessed to a group of Russian mercenaries “, she continued.
Authoritarian regimes are by definition, by very construction, quicker to dare direct confrontation. This has implications for us. The passage from a democratic government to a military government carries with it the temptation of aggressiveness.
Catherine Colonna: “The junta is sailing on sight, from failure to failure”
“We must dismantle the manipulations”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also mentioned the information warfare of which the French President Emmanuel Macron was already speaking on Thursday during the conference of ambassadors.
“ We must dismantle the manipulations and cut short the lies, we must also regain control of our own story, of our image. “, launched the minister, evoking a “ strategic issue “.
” It is up to us to demonstrate that we are the right partner, the most reliable, the most respectful “said Ms. Colonna, assuring that Paris was determined to” act with States and dialogue directly with civil societies “.
“ We will remain present with African States that so wish, and in support of the needs that they sovereignly express she repeated.