Malian authorities have announced the termination of all counterterrorism cooperation with France and ordered five French diplomats to leave the country within 72 hours, declaring them “persona non grata.”
The move, detailed in a confidential note sent to the French Embassy in Bamako on September 17, came in response to Paris’s earlier expulsion of two Malian intelligence officers.
The decision marks another escalation in worsening ties between the two countries, following the August arrest of a French Embassy employee in Bamako accused of being an intelligence officer involved in a destabilization plot.
Mali’s ruling military junta, which seized power through two successive coups, had already expelled French forces and turned to Russia for security support.
At the same time, tensions with Algeria have deepened after Algiers refused to appear before the International Court of Justice over the downing of a Malian surveillance drone. Bamako has accused Algeria of backing armed groups, further straining relations between the two neighbors.
