“We have received a request from Mali and we are investigating it”, declared the source without specifying what points it pertains to.

Malian Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Manga spoke on the need to review these agreements on Saturday.

“We want to re-read the unbalanced agreements that make us a state that cannot even fly over its territory without authorization from France,” he said on national television.

The head of Malian diplomacy, Abdoulaye Diop, then confirmed to France 24 news channel that Bamako had taken steps in this direction.

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“Mali has requested an amendment to the Treaty on Defense that binds it to #France. The amendments have been formally submitted,” he told journalist Wasim Nasr, who retweeted his remarks.

Serval, the French military operation launched in January 2013 against jihadists in Mali, which later became Barkhane, is governed by an intergovernmental agreement of March 2013 as well as an additional protocol.

This request for revision adds to a series of tensions between Bamako and Paris, against the backdrop of the establishment of mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Mali and the reorganization of the French military presence in this country.

French and Europeans involved in anti-jihadist fighting in Mali said on Friday they were ready to stay there “but not at any cost”.

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Last week, the junta in power in Bamako since August 2020 closed its borders to the States of the Organization of West African States (ECOWAS), the latter to approve the troops project to stay at the head. did. Without elections in the country for many years.

Since then, the question has been raised of the freedom of movement of military aircraft entering or leaving the airspace of or in particular Minusma and France, to or from West African states.