© REUTERS/Benoit TessierTroops from the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and members of a French military medical unit conduct an assistance operation for the local population during the Operation Barkhane in Ndaki, Mali, July 29, 2019.
Comment: Not only false! Can you imagine this ever happening with Russian troops in Syria?
The rebuff was issued by Defense Minister Florence Parly's office on Thursday. Branding remarks by Malian Ambassador Toumani Djime Diallo as "indecent," it argued that the French troops are risking their lives to protect the West African country from terrorism.
"Rather than channeling and spreading false accusations, we expect the ambassador of Mali to devote all his energy to... achieving success for everyone," the statement read, as cited by AFP.
The allegations concerning bad behavior by French troops - those attached to its fabled Foreign Legion in particular - were made by Diallo on Wednesday. Speaking during a public hearing alongside his colleagues from Niger, Mauritania, Chad and Burkina Faso, the diplomat claimed that some soldiers of the elite military force's parachutist regiment had gone wild, causing trouble in the country's capital, Bamako.
France maintains a large force in the Sahel region, the majority of which is stationed in Mali. The total number of troops currently stands at 5,100 after Paris decided to deploy 600 additional servicemen early in February. The French contingent is the backbone of Operation Barkhane - a multinational force designed to counter various jihadist groups active in the Sahel region.
Comment: Officially anyway, yet we never hear of how their operations are going. Strange that...
France intervened in Mali - its former colony - back in 2013 in a bid to push back a jihadist insurgency that was active in the north of the country. The results of Paris' efforts, however, have been quite modest at best - over the years, the security situation in the region has not improved but actually deteriorated further.
Comment: Exactly what happened when France, the US, UK and other Western countries intervened 'to fight ISIS' in Syria in 2014 - it got stronger.
France, obviously, has other, more lucrative reasons for remaining in Mali...
(article from 2013)
Officially, President Francois Hollande's government says that security interests explain its decision to intervene, and Paris insists it wants to act early to prevent the rebels in Western Africa from becoming a danger to Europe. [...]
However, more is at stake than the risk of terrorist attacks.
"In the long term, France has interests in securing resources in the Sahel - particularly oil and uranium, which the French energy company Areva has been extracting for decades in neighboring Niger."
The militants, linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), have gained a foothold in the central parts of Mali and spread into the neighboring countries, Burkina Faso and Niger. Sectarian and ethnic violence persists in the region, while the jihadists frequently launch attacks resulting in massive civilian and military casualties.
The deteriorating security situation - amid a growing French military presence - has also fueled dissent among the citizens of the Sahel countries, Mali and Niger in particular. Mass protests saw demonstrators burning French flags and calling on Paris to leave altogether, arguing that a French military presence only foments violence on the ground in its former African colonies.
Comment: As France has done the opposite to halting the spread of Islamist militants, Malians are growing increasingly impatient: