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The French president has said that Paris will withdraw its troops a year after a second coup if Mali hides what he calls “radical Islamism”.
President Emmanuel Macron warned in comments released on Sunday that France would withdraw its troops from Mali in nine months after hiding what it called “radical Islamism” after the second coup.
France has about 5,100 troops in the region from five Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – under Operation Barkhane.
The mission, headquartered in Chad, began in France under the command of former President François Hollande in 2013 after intervening in Mali to help repel fighters who had crossed parts of the West African country.
On Tuesday, France and the European Union denounced the “unacceptable coup” after Mali’s interim president Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane were arrested and stripped of power in less than a year after the country’s second coup.
Macron said he told Ndaw that France, the former colonial power, would withdraw troops if Mali called for “radical Islamism.”
“Radical Islamism in Mali with our soldiers there? Never, ”he told Le Journal du Dimanche, citing the rise of armed groups in the country.
“It simply came to our notice then. But if it goes in that direction, I will go back, ”he warned in comments on his trip to Rwanda and South Africa. Macron went home to Paris on Saturday.
The French president added that he had sent a message to West African leaders that they could not push a country back “if there is already democratic legitimacy or transition”.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has invited Mali’s military leader Assimi Goita to the Ghanaian capital Accra for “consultations” ahead of an extraordinary summit in Mali on Sunday.
Goita flew to Accra on Saturday, military and airport sources said.
The democratically elected president who was ousted last August has been vice president since he led the coup, under pressure from ECOWAS, which has acted as a mediator to fill the roles of president and prime minister.
However, transitional leaders were arrested on Monday before being released on Thursday, saying the military had resigned.
The arrests of the twins caused a diplomatic uproar and an apparent second coup took place in a year in the Sahel country.
Mali’s constitutional court promoted Goita to full power on Friday by appointing a transitional president.
When the military government revived its commitment to previous civilian political leaders, doubts arose about other commitments.
Macron, in comments published on Sunday, warned that if Africa’s development fails, Europe will “pay dearly for migration”.
He stressed that the international community must also eliminate part of the continent’s debt by “massively investing” in “helping Africans build their future”.
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