Malian Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga accused France of supporting terrorism and arming extremist groups in the country. He pointed out that this contradicts Pars' membership in the UN Security Council.
Malian Acting Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga accused, on Saturday, France of supporting terrorism in his country and providing extremist groups with weapons and intelligence to destabilize Mali.
This came in his speech during the high-level discussions of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, currently being held in New York.
Maiga said: "France's hostile actions against my country are inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations, and are incompatible with France's permanent membership in the UN Security Council."
France, along with America, Russia, Britain and China, is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which allows the five countries to use the veto.
Maiga called for "the intervention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in order to convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council with the aim of presenting the evidence that Mali possesses regarding the involvement of the French authorities in supporting terrorism and to stop the duplication and proxy war imposed on Mali."
He added, "The integrity of this UN organization is at stake, and it is appropriate for Mali to request the Secretary-General's involvement with the Security Council so that the Council responds to our request to convene to stop this duplication and proxy war imposed on my country."
Maiga strongly criticized "France's decision to withdraw its forces from Mali (on June 21, 2021)", considering it "a betrayal directed at the heritage of French philosophers and a stab in the back of my country."
The Prime Minister stressed that he "clearly distinguishes between the French people and the current French authorities, which have a nostalgia for obscurantism and a return to colonial, condescending and vengeful patriarchal practices," as he put it.
It is noteworthy that on August 22, the transitional president of Mali, Colonel Asimi Gueta, appointed Maiga to the position of acting prime minister.
After the first coup on August 18, 2020, against President Ibrahim Abu Bakr Keita, the Military Council, under international pressure, committed itself to an 18-month transitional period led by civilians.
But Gueta, who remained the strongman of the transition, reneged on the commitment on 24 May and arrested the civilian president and prime minister, and the Constitutional Court subsequently announced his appointment as interim president.