France expels Malian diplomats, halts counter-terrorism cooperation over arrest of envoy

The move, announced by a French diplomatic source on Friday, September 19, comes weeks after Malian authorities detained Yann Vezilier, an accredited member of the French embassy. Bamako accused him of working for French intelligence and conspiring in an alleged coup plot, a charge Paris has dismissed as “unfounded.”

French officials protested that the arrest violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which grants diplomats immunity. The French foreign ministry called his detention "unjustified."

The two Malian diplomats have until Saturday to leave French territory. In a retaliatory move, Mali declared five staff members of France’s embassy in Bamako persona non grata, who departed the country last Sunday, according to French officials.

Mali’s junta, led by President Assimi Goïta, insists that “foreign states” are seeking to destabilise the country, pointing to Vezilier’s alleged role alongside two generals and several others arrested in what authorities described as a coup attempt.

France has warned that further measures will follow if its envoy is not released quickly.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply since back-to-back coups in Bamako in 2020 and 2021. Mali cut military ties with France in 2022 and has since deepened cooperation with Russia, which the junta frames as a bid for sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Mali continues to grapple with a grinding security crisis. Armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, along with criminal networks, have waged an insurgency since 2012. In recent weeks, militants have tried to blockade the country by attacking a key supply corridor to Senegal, Mali’s main access to the sea.