Militant groups in northern Mali’s Kidal region have been trained by French officers, Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga claimed in an interview with RIA Novosti, saying two-thirds of his country is “occupied by terrorists.”
Mali has evidence that French forces present in its territory with a mission to counter terrorist groups have been instead “training” militants, the transitional government’s prime minister told Russia’s RIA news agency on Friday. According to the Malian official, France now controls an enclave in Kidal, with Mali having no access.
“They have militant groups there, who have been trained by French officers. We have evidence of that. There is an expression in our language, saying that when you are looking for a needle in your room and someone, said to be helping you in the search, is standing on that needle, you will never find it. So this is the situation happening now in Mali, and we don’t want to bear with it,” Maiga said.
The politician explained that terrorists now operating in Mali “came from Libya,” with France and its allies having destroyed the North African state in an ill-fated 2011 military intervention led by NATO. Initially, Bamako wanted to cooperate with Paris in fighting terrorists and asked for assistance with intelligence data and air support. “No one asked for its ground presence,” the prime minister said.
While “eight years ago terrorists were present only in the northern part of Mali, in Kidal, now two thirds of the country are occupied by terrorists,” he added.
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