Mali isolates itself a little more. Bamako announced, on Sunday May 15, its withdrawal from the G5 Sahel and its anti-jihadist military force to protest against the refusal opposed to it to assume the presidency of this regional organization formed with Mauritania, Chad, Burkina Faso and the Niger. “The government of Mali decides to withdraw from all organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the Joint Force”, says its press release. The G5 Sahel was created in 2014 and its anti-jihadist force launched in 2017.
Since January 9, Mali has been the subject of economic and diplomatic sanctions from West African states, which accuse the junta of wanting to stay in power for several more years, after two putschs in August 2020 and then in May 2021.
This new decision comes after the announcement, at the beginning of May, by the junta, of the end of the 2014 cooperation treaty with Franceas well as the 2013 and 2020 agreements setting the legal framework for the presence of the anti-jihadist force Barkhane and the grouping of European special forces Takuba, initiated by France.
At the origin of the wrath of Bamako against the G5 Sahel: the conference of heads of state of the organization, initially scheduled for February in Bamako, which was to “consecrate the beginning of the Malian presidency of the G5”. But “nearly a quarter after the indicated term”, this meeting “still hasn’t held up”notes the press release from the Malian authorities.
The Malian government “firmly rejects the argument of a member state of the G5 Sahel who advances the national internal political situation to oppose the exercise by Mali of the presidency of the G5 Sahel”without mentioning this State. “The opposition of some G5 Sahel states to the presidency of Mali is linked to the maneuvers of an extra-regional state desperately aiming to isolate Mali”continues the press release, without naming this state either.
Relations between Mali and European countries, starting with France, have deteriorated significantly in recent months. France and its allies accuse the junta of having secured the services of the Russian private security company Wagner, with controversial actions, which Bamako disputes.
United Nations concern
Bilateral relations with the G5 Sahel countries “remain maintained”said Sunday evening the Malian Minister of Territorial Administration, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, on Malian public television.
The five countries of the G5 Sahel had created this organization in 2014, then launched its military force in 2017, while the noose of the jihadists tightened around these States, with under-equipped armies. The G5 Sahel was made up of around 5,000 soldiers. The coups in Mali and Burkina Faso are undermining its operational capacity, recently estimated the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in a report submitted on May 11 to the Security Council.
“I am deeply concerned about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the Sahel, as well as the potentially adverse effect that the uncertain political situation in Mali, Burkina Faso and beyond will have on efforts to make the Force more operational. Joint G5 Sahel »he had said in this document.
Mali has been the scene since 2012 of operations by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization, as well as violence of all kinds perpetrated by self-proclaimed self-defense militias and bandits.
This violence, which started in the north in 2012, spread to the center, then to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. They caused thousands of civilian and military deaths as well as hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, despite the deployment of UN, French and African forces.