French intelligence in cahoots with multinational companies are accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in Mali, a member state of the Confederation of Sahel States, which includes Burkina Faso and Niger. The coup attempt was foiled following the arrest of two Malian generals and 40 servicemen, as well as a French national earlier this month.
“This did not come as a surprise to us. And we suspect that France is not the only one involved,” Fousseynou Ouattara, Vice President of the Defense and Security Commission of Mali’s Transitional Council, told Sputnik Africa. The plot was orchestrated by multinational corporations, with the complicity of French intelligence services, to hinder Mali’s development, as the country “has already embarked on a path of sovereignty, seeking to reclaim its underground resources,” according to Ouattara.
At the same time, he praised Mali’s strategic partnership with Russia, calling it a key ally in defending the countries of the Confederation of Sahel States.
In a televised statement, on Aug. 14 the military said “fringe elements” of the armed forces were working to “destabilize the institutions of the republic” with foreign support. They also announced the arrest of a French national suspected of working for French intelligence.
Earlier in this past week Malian security sources told AFP that 55 soldiers had been arrested. Two generals were arrested, one of them being Abbas Dembele, who had recently been dismissed from his position as governor of one of the country’s provinces. In recent years he attended military training courses in France and the U.S.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which have joined together to form the Confederation of Sahel States, have forced France and the U.S. to remove their military bases from the country. They have been cooperating closely with Russia and China on security and economic development issues, which has especially not pleased France. The “multinationals” could be the gold-mining companies, such as Barrack Gold, that have been forced to renegotiate their contracts for their mining concessions.
