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Mali on Thursday proposed that European states participating in the Takuba force continue cooperating bilaterally, an army statement said, after France announced a military withdrawal from the troubled Sahel country.
Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop and Defence Minister Colonel Sadio Camara floated the idea to European ambassadors in a meeting in Mali’s capital Bamako.
“All partners who wish to work with Mali in securing the country… are welcome,” Diop was quoted as saying.
Earlier on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he was withdrawing troops from Mali after a breakdown in relations with the nation’s ruling military junta.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply after Mali’s army seized power in a coup in 2020, and later defied calls to restore civilian rule swiftly.
The French pullout after nearly a decade is also set to see the smaller European Takuba force of European special forces — which was created in 2020 — leave Mali.
On Thursday, Diop was quoted as telling the European ambassadors that “Mali remains available for exchanges,” adding that these should be bilateral.
The statement also said that European countries should “show discernment” in Mali’s diplomatic dispute with France.
Impoverished Mali is plagued by a jihadist insurgency that first emerged in 2012 before spreading to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict and around two million have been displaced, despite the presence of foreign troops.
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