Abdoulaye Maiga, addressing the annual debate of the UN General Assembly, said Mali had been experiencing a multi-faceted crisis since 2012 that led to the loss of more than half of its territory and countless civilian casualties.
This was largely due to violence committed by an “opportunistic and incestuous association” of terrorist groups and other armed fighters. NATO’s indiscriminate military intervention in Libya had also played a role in deteriorating the situation across the Sahel.
Terrorist activities, instigated by sponsors within and outside the region, had a serious impact on Mali’s security and stability due to increasing violence, “all kinds of human trafficking, money laundering and communal conflict,” the Deputy Prime Minister explained out.
After witnessing the failure of international forces on their territory since 2013 to address these issues, Malian authorities decided to ‘take their fate into their own hands’. Since 2021, Mali has launched a comprehensive campaign to re-equip and reorganize Mali’s defense and security forces.
Following a subsequent national assessment, Malian authorities and citizens had jointly concluded that their country, its people and its defense and security forces had been “left looted and polluted; battered and humiliated; high and dry and stabbed in the back,” by parties that had incited violence and plundered the country’s resources for their own gain. This applied to much of Africa.
Given this “brutal reality of international relations,” especially when it comes to Africa, Mali’s president had earlier this year launched a “national values education program,” aiming to reconnect Malians with their origins, “without this program it would be difficult to I can imagine a bright future for our country in its legitimate quest to restore its sovereignty,” Mr. Maiga explained.
Turning to the ongoing political transition in Mali, he recalled that the Malian people had chosen to implement political reforms before holding elections to, among other things, achieve good governance. In addition, to further promote national unity, “which is the basis for all development efforts,” the President held the three-phase Inter-Malian Dialogue for Peace and Reconciliation on December 31, 2023. The aim is to enable the nation to seek Malian solutions for preventing, managing and resolving conflicts.
“We call on all Malians to support this trend towards reconciliation, an important step towards the return to constitutional order,” Mr Maiga said. The armed forces had been successful, among other things, in their attempts to free all regions from terrorist groups, especially in Kidal.
Even though terrorist groups were “severely weakened” with Malian forces deployed across the country, these “criminals” continued “desperate efforts to undermine the territorial integrity of Mali,” he said, expressing support for such actors denounced by “sponsors of foreign states”. ”.
Mr Maiga also recalled that earlier this year the member states of the Confederation of States of the Sahel sent a joint letter to the Security Council to condemn the Ukrainian authorities’ support for international terrorism; denouncing the aggression against Mali; and demand that the Council take appropriate action against the Ukrainian government.
He also criticized France for its aggression against Mali and its involvement in promoting terrorism in the Sahel through armed, economic and media terrorism.
Finally, the Deputy Foreign Minister expressed surprise at the “fierce hostility” of some officials of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) “who are acting at the behest of imperialists and neo-colonial entities.”
