The arrest of Yann timeilier, accused of trying to destabilize Mali, marks the new decline in relations between Paris and Bamako.
The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France has said that a French man recently arrested in Mali for “unfounded” positions to record a coup d'etat was an employee of the French embassy.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday that he was in conversations with Bamako to “clarify any misunderstanding” and obtain the “immediate liberation” of Yann timeilier, who had been arrested in recent weeks along with two generals and other military personnel.
He added that the arrest of the French national violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Mali Security Minister, General Daud Aly Mohammedine, had announced the arrest from time to time, claiming that he had been working for French intelligence services, mobilizing “political leaders, civil society actors and military personnel” to destabilize the country.
Mohammedine said that a complete investigation into the alleged plot, which he had launched on August 1, was underway and that “the situation is completely under control.”
The arrests followed an offensive against dissent after a prodemocratic demonstration in May, the first since the military government came to power after consecutive blows in 2020 and 2021.
The relationship once narrow from France with its former colony in the Sahel region of Western Africa has been grated since the soldiers confiscated power almost four years ago.
The military government, led by President Assimi Goita, has moved away from Western partners, in particular the former colonial power France, expelling his troops and resorting to Russia to obtain security assistance.
Since then, the country has been seized by a security crisis since 2012, fed significantly by the violence of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Isil Group (ISIS), as well as local criminal gangs.
In June, Goita received additional five years in power, despite the previous promises of the military government to return to the civil government by March 2024. The measure followed the dissolution of the political parties of the military in May.
