DAKAR (Reuters) - Mali’s foreign affairs minister has said that the military government would exercise its right to self-defense if France continued to undermine the West African country’s sovereignty and national security.
Speaking at a United Nations Security Council briefing on Mali in New York, Minister Abdoulaye Diop repeated allegations that France had violated its airspace and delivered arms to terrorist groups that have been waging an offensive in northern Mali for the past decade.
“There needs to be a specific meeting of the Security Council which will make it possible for us to bring to light evidence regarding duplicitous acts, acts of espionage and acts of destabilization waged by France,” Diop said.
“The government of Mali reserves the right to exercise its right to self-defense… if France continues to undermine the sovereignty of our country and to undermine its territorial integrity and its national security,” he added.
France’s representative denied the “defamatory” accusations, defended its intervention in Mali as fully transparent and said the country had never violated any airspace.
Diop also denied human rights violations by the Malian army reported by the UN and other groups.
Terrorist groups have since advanced further into eastern Mali, seizing territory and killing hundreds of civilians as thousands more fled.
Four UN peacekeepers were killed in a separate attack in the north of the country on Monday.
Mali has faced instability since 2012, when Terrorist groups hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in the north.