Mali’s ruling junta ordered French broadcasters RFI and France 24 off the air on Wednesday night, complaining they had falsely accused the army of committing abuses.
The government in Bamako “categorically rejects these false accusations against the courageous FAMA (Malian Armed Forces),” spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said.
The junta is “initiating proceedings… to suspend broadcasts by RFI and France 24… until further notice,” he continued.
RFI and France 24 were still broadcasting on Thursday morning in the conflict-ridden Sahel nation.
There is no recent precedent in Mali for major foreign news media to be taken off the air.
RFI (Radio France Internationale) and France 24 cover African news extensively and have a strong following in the former French colony.
The junta, which seized power in August 2020, said there had been “false accusations” in a report early in the week in which RFI aired comments from alleged victims of abuse by the army and shadowy Russian private-security group Wagner.
Maiga said Malian news websites, newspapers and its national radio and TV stations were all “banned from rebroadcasting and/or publishing programmes and news articles put out by RFI and France 24”.
He compared the French broadcasters to Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines — a notorious outlet that incited listeners to exterminate minority Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.
– Taken off air –
In its statement, Mali’s junta also accused Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Michelle Bachelet, the UN human rights chief, of making false allegations against the government.
HRW this week released a report accusing Malian soldiers, as well as jihadists, of a wave of civilian killings.
An impoverished nation of 21 million people, Mali has over the past decade been wracked by Islamist violence. Swathes of the country are in thrall to myriad rebel groups and militias.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.
Mali’s under-equipped army has also often been accused of committing abuses during the brutal conflict.
But the army-dominated interim government, installed after a 2020 military coup, regularly rejects such accusations.
Mali’s ruling military has pledged to restore civilian rule.
But it ignored an earlier commitment to stage elections in February — proposing instead to stay in power for up to five years.
The move prompted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to slap tough sanctions on the country, closing borders and imposing a trade embargo.
The junta’s growing friendship with Russia has also worsened friction with France, a traditional ally.
President Emmanuel Macron last month announced the impending withdrawal of thousands of troops deployed in Mali under France’s anti-jihadist mission in the Sahel.
