False…unacceptable…baseless…and shocking…Those are the words chosen by French officials to describe these comments made by Mali’s ambassador at the Senate on Wednesday – about the excesses of French soldiers that he says he’s witnessed. SOT Toumani Djime Diallo, Mali’s ambassador to France “In these forces there are the officers, there’s the normal army, but there are also the Foreign Legions, and that’s where the problem lies // You see them in the red-light districts of Bamako, their bodies completely covered in tattoos, behaving in a way that does not correspond to the national army we know”The ambassador is returning to Mali this Friday, after having been summoned by France’s Foreign Ministry which voiced its fury at his remarks. Defence Minister Florence Parly meanwhile says that making such allegations while French service personnel are risking their lives to protect citizens is “indecent”.ARCHIVESForeign Legion troops are part of the 5100 French soldiers stationed across the Sahel to combat Islamist insurgents.UPSOT PROTEST MALI And this week’s dispute comes at the tail end of a wider storm about France’s military presence in that region. In January, hundreds gathered in the Malian capital in protest, with their placards reading “France, get lost” But just days after those rallies at talks in the city of Pau, President Macron secured the backing of the G5 Sahel leaders to keep French boots on the ground.
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