If you search through the media about the origin of violence and insecurity in Mali, the search results always say that the beginning of violence, insecurity, and terrorism in Mali can be traced back to 2012 when some members of the Tuareg tribe of northern Mali decided to take up arms and fight for their supposed Independence. During this period, the Islamist Jihadists were few, and not as rampant as it is today. They only grew after they decided to collaborate with the Tuareg rebels who called themselves the Movement for the National Liberation of Azawad, to fight against the government of Mali. However, this alliance didn’t last even though they were able to conquer some major cities in northern Mali because the Tuareg rebels decided to separate from the jihadists after they discovered that the jihadists had plans to impose sharia laws on the conquered territories which they eventually did. But this is beside the point. The point is based on what has been circulated in the Media about the beginning of insecurity in Mali we have always believed that the violence started when members of the Tuareg tribe who fled from Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi decided to fight for their independence. But, now a prominent leader in Mali has come out to challenge this notion and say that France is responsible for creating the rebel movement and by extension creating the violence in Mali. This Malian leader is none other than the Prime Minister of Mali, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, and in this video, we are going to show you what he said in detail.

In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, a media agency, the Prime Minister of Mali, Choguel Kokalla Maiga spoke about a wide range of issues ranging from the security and political situation in Mali, factors that led to the 2020 coup, to bilateral relations with several international actors, including Turkiye. However, our concern is on the first part of his interview. The Prime Minister started by saying that since the coup occurred in 2020, France has opposed the inclusion of any development project concerning Mali on the agenda. He stated that “We noted that every time an ECOWAS summit is announced — we do not know by what magic — the French authorities are well informed about it, including knowing the exact date and possible sanctions. So, this led us to conclude that certainly, France is more informed about the outcomes of the summit than the ECOWAS heads of state”. This just confirms that ECOWAS is nothing but puppets in the hands of France and the West. Anyways back to the Prime Minister’s interview.

Maiga gave an instance of how the French authorities had announced a month earlier that sanctions would be imposed on Mali by ECOWAS leaders at the Jan. 9, 2022 summit and eventually, ECOWAS slapped these stringent economic sanctions on the country. It therefore indicated that the sanctions certainly are one of the tactics to destabilize the military government and ensure it fails to have a puppet government that would fall into line with the French authorities. Moving on, the Prime Minister went on to talk about the insecurity which has plagued Mali for years. He started by making reference to the situation in Afghanistan where the international community which he described as “a few countries speaking on behalf of everybody, intervened for 20 years with full military might. But then at the end of those 20 years, they decided to leave Afghanistan but in what state? They intervened but eventually left Afghanistan worse off than it initially was before they intervened. This means their presence actually worsened the situation.

Mali’s prime minister said that it’s the same thing happening in Mali. He said that Mali had a lot of security forces beginning with the Malian Armed Forces, French Operation Barkhane, United Nations operation, MINUSMA, European operations like the EUTM and EUCAP, the G5 Sahel, and the European Takuba military forces. But despite this avalanche of security forces, the security situation kept deteriorating. Honestly, let’s take a pause and think about it. Mali had about nine different security forces running at the same time to deal with Islamist jihadists and the Tuareg rebels and they all with their combined might couldn’t fix the problem for 10 good years. Does that make sense? Don’t forget that all these security forces had sophisticated weaponry and intelligence which they could have used to solve the problem but they couldn’t. It’s why according to the Prime minister, Mali had to look for a different solution because it was baffling why since 2013 after the insecurity broke up, eighty percent of Mali’s territory has been invaded by terrorists with international forces in the country.

It was at this point during the interview that the Prime Minister of Mali made a shocking statement, a statement that challenged what we have always thought. He said that in the same way, the UN Security Council sowed disorder in Libya by assassinating Muammar, it’s the same way France sowed chaos in Mali. In his own words, the Prime Minister said that “So you create chaos. You arm people. You tell them to go and divide Mali. The separatists clearly said that it was France that was behind the separatist movements of 2011 from Libya. The leaders of the movements said France had instigated them to invade northern Mali and divide it and create an independent state. We are not the ones saying that. It is the leaders of this movement who say so and are supported by French politicians”. Imagine this. Isn’t it astonishing to think that France was responsible for creating the Tuareg rebels? Of course, when France heard these accusations, they denied such but that’s expected.

It may seem wild to accuse France of instigating the Tuareg rebels but in Mali, it is well known that France has openly supported the National Movement for Liberation of the Azawad for a long time. The MNLA’s “fight for freedom” has been profusely covered by French media throughout Mali’s conflict, with French journalists romanticising the MNLA rebels as “the men in blue” in their poetic reports. France’s positive attitudes towards the rebels had geopolitical reasons, as Paris saw the MNLA as a group that could protect France’s economic interests in the region from al-Qaeda-linked fighters and any future attempts by the central government to take full control over the nation’s natural resources. In 2014, encouraged by France, the MNLA along with other Tuareg separatist groups and Arab nationalists formed the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) and one year later, it signed a peace deal with the Malian government.

The agreement handed greater autonomy to the sparsely populated northern region of Mali. The International media may have focused on the role Algeria played in the signing of the deal, but for attentive Mali watchers, it was clear that its real architect was none other than the country’s former colonial “master”, France. At the time, many analysts both in Africa and France argued that the peace deal would mark the end of the Malian state as we know it. And four years on, it is clear that the peace deal did indeed pave the way for the disintegration of Mali. The devolved region of Kidal, officially under the control of CMA but in practice dominated by the French military, has become an epicenter of lawlessness and violence completely beyond the reach of the Malian state. Is it any wonder that immediately after French forces and MINUSMA peacekeepers left Mali, and Mali took over Kidal, the Tuareg rebels declared that the peace deal had been broken and fighting started between Mali and the armed rebels? France is clearly behind it all.

However, the question is why would France gain for creating violence in Mali? The answer as usual is for France’s interest. Interestingly France would say that it’s in their interest for peace to be in Mali but that’s not true. What better way to exploit Mali’s gold and uranium minerals than to deploy its soldiers to the country? And, the only way to deploy its soldiers would be if there was insecurity. Imagine if Mali has been peaceful, with no violence and no Tuareg rebels. France would have no right to deploy its soldiers to Mali and set up a base. So, they had to create a situation which would ensure that Mali asked for their help and they would swoop in as Saviours to save the day. But their plan wasn’t to completely eradicate the insecurity. The plan was to fight the jihadist and armed rebels a little, give them time to regroup and fight again and so the cycle continues.

Now, guess what? The media always said that Mali begged France for help right? Yes that’s true but the Prime Minister of Mali revealed that Mali never asked France to send its soldiers. They only asked for air support and intelligence but in the same way, the UN Security Council decided to overstep a resolution that allowed them to protect Benghazi from aerial bombardment by Muammar Gaddafi, and assassinate Ghadafi, France decided to deploy its forces and set up a base in Kidal. And, after they arrived in Kidal, they blocked the way for the Malian army, creating an enclave where terrorists had years to reorganize. Mali’s Prime Minister Maiga is however not the only one to have said that France is responsible for creating chaos in Mali.

In 2022, the Foreign Minister of Mali, Abdoulaye Diop wrote a letter to the United Nations accusing France of supporting jihadists and violating Mali’s airspace. According to Minister Diop, he has “several elements” proving that illegal incursions into Malian airspace have been “used by France to collect information for the benefit of terrorist groups” and to “drop them weapons and ammunition”, The letter speaks of some 50 “repetitive and frequent violations of Malian airspace by French forces” since the start of 2022. Drones, helicopters or fighter planes had flown over Mali “without authorization” from Bamako. Diop further stated that France carried out “spying activities”, including “packages dropped” by the French army on 8 August. This was proved after clandestine and uncoordinated overflight operations by France were conducted after an attack on Tessit camp which claimed the lives of 42 Malian soldiers. Although Minister Diop called for an emergency meeting with the United Nations to address these claims, no such meeting was arranged and the issue has died out. You can see how biased the United Nations is to European countries. If the situation was reversed whereby France was the one who called the emergency meeting and Mali was accused, you can bet that that emergency meeting would be arranged and the International Criminal Court of Justice would be set up.

The Prime Minister of Mali in his interview also disclosed how military forces from European countries sent their forces to Mali without any prior agreement with the Malian government all in the name of fighting insecurity. Isn’t that trampling on their sovereignty as a nation? Can any country send their military force to the USA without the authority and agreement of the US government? Of course not but that is what happened in Mali. The Danish government sent its military forces to Mali without any agreement and when Mali asked the Danish government to withdraw its forces until it complied with the agreements, France described it as an irresponsible act. Can you imagine that? The paternalistic attitude of France towards African countries would never end. But that’s not all, these foreign governments also make decisions that concern Mali without the input of the Malian government. Does that make any sense? One such decision discovered by the ambassador of Mali was that the UN wanted to increase the strength of MINUSMA by more than 2,000 troops. The idea itself is not wrong but the idea of making that decision without the input of the country involved is simply trampling on their right as an independent nation.

It’s for this reason that Mali had to kick all these foreign military forces out of their country and sought partnerships with non-Western countries as well as African countries who are not just looking for their own interest. Today, Mali is still battling with the jihadists and the armed rebels but according to the Prime Minister, since all these foreign military forces have left Mali, the Malian military has achieved spectacular results. The number of terrorists eliminated in less than a month is greater than what has been achieved in the last 30 years. Truly only Africans can deal with African problems.

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