According to the office of the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly's recent visit to Mali was intended to show the French desire to stabilize the Sahel. But Paris also wanted to deliver its side of the story after accusations of murdering civilians.
The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, visited Mali on April 1. It was, as indicated in a press release from the ministry, to confirm "the growing involvement of Europeans for the stability of the Sahel and their determination to continue the fight in Mali against the various terrorist groups".
And it was not an April Fool's Day. Though. Because the minister's visit comes a few days after the publication of a report by Minusma and the UN on the French air strike of January 3 which decimated at least 22 people during a wedding. The coveted target? A certain "Katiba Serma", which did not exist before the date of the bombardment.
Certainly in order to calm the spirits, Emmanuel Macron therefore sent his Minister of the Armed Forces to Mali. For Paris, it was rather a buyout operation. Or rather justification and lies.
A headlong flight
The Minusma report is the result of a weeks-long field investigation by a team of 19 UN staff, including two forensic police investigators. From January 4 to February 20, they visited the cities of Bamako, Sévaré, Douentza and Bounty. There, they interviewed more than 115 people individually and 200 others in groups, including family members of the victims, witnesses and representatives of local community associations and medical workers.
Their report exposes the lies of the French military and government following the attack. Immediately after the airstrike, Paris insisted that it had struck a rally of 30 members of an "armed terrorist group". On January 20, the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly was questioned about the attack during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Parly then qualified the reports of an attack on civilians as an example of an “information war” and “rumors” used to discredit the French occupation in the Sahel.
Asked why the French army had not made public its evidence proving that the victims were alleged members of an armed terrorist group, Parly said it was impossible because it would show "our enemies what we know about them ”. Practice.
Following the UN report, Paris redoubled its lies. On March 30, the armed forces issued a statement under the headline: “Reaction to the Minusma Report on the January airstrikes in Mali”. Parly does not attempt to respond to the substantial evidence provided in the 36-page report. It simply states that “the only concrete sources on which the report is based come from local testimonies. ". One way to discredit him without providing any evidence.
However, France has been bombing eastern Mali for a while with its drones and bombers. A more than suspicious practice. If the goal was to protect French soldiers, repatriation would have been a perfect solution to get out of the Malian quagmire.
The new skirmishers and their African victims
If Florence Parly did not go to Mali to admit the crime of the French army and calm the spirits, what then did she go to do? Well, from the start of the UN investigation into the French bombing, and even before, France looked for a way out to escape responsibility for the killings of civilians by Operation Barkhane forces in Sahel.
After having promised funding to Chadian troops before the G5 Sahel summit, in order to motivate them to become the cannon fodder of the French war in the "Three Borders" area, France sought European allies in order to put the atrocities committed by the anti-terrorism forces in the background.
Thus, the "Takuba" force obtained the support of the Czechs, the Swedes, the Estonians, the Italians and undoubtedly that of the Americans.. Task Force Takuba will therefore use the national armies of African countries as forces on the ground and will focus on air support, training and logistics. A plan that was decided unilaterally.
As for the report on the French bombing, it now leaves room for another investigation, this time on a more recent bombardment. This latest air raid killed six teenagers on March 25 in the Gao region.. The UN has called on the French military to open its own investigation into the incident.
The response already made by the French government to the latest revelations highlights the illusory nature of the UN call. However, Paris would do better to comply with the demands of the United Nations, after the demonstrations of Malians and the comments of members of the government demanding the departure of Barkhane from Mali. Niger and Burkina Faso, meanwhile, are already negotiating with terrorists., who are beginning to appear as obvious interlocutors to envisage the end of a war which has destabilized the whole region.
France launched its intervention in Mali in 2014, after the overthrow by Paris of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. It maintained a permanent occupation of 5 men, alongside Reaper drones and bombers. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism in the region, France is securing control of a region rich in resources and strategically important, which includes uranium supplies used for European energy production.