Last month, on 17 February, President Macron announced the withdrawal of French troops from Mali in West Africa. From 2013, alongside the forces involved in ‘Operation Barkhane’ and the ‘Takuba Task Force’, France led an intervention in Mali with the supposed intention of fighting to “stabilise the country”. All major European NATO countries were involved, and the intervention was fully backed by the UN, which sent a 15,000-strong mission, which it called “MINUSMA”, which also established itself in other countries of the Sahel region.

The turmoil in the West African country of Mali deepened this week after a group of soldiers and junior officers based in the capital Bamako detained President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cissé and other top government officials and forced them to resign.

The French government claims it has sent troops to Mali to combat terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. However, the truth is very concrete: France has major interests in the regions and is fighting to hold on to its spheres of influence. Tragically, the leadership of the French Communist Party (PCF) supports the war. Greg Oxley, editor of La Riposte and member of the "Conseil Départemental" of the Paris PCF, in this interview, recently given to Raoul Rigault of the German left-wing paper Junge Welt, explains the reasons for all this.

Francois Hollande has decided to flex his muscles. Based on the "threat of Islamic terrorism", the French president has deployed more than 4000 soldiers. The "international community" has unanimously approved of the intervention.

Contrary to the statements of François Hollande and his government, the intervention of the French army in Mali has nothing to do with the stated “French values”, “human rights” or any other humanitarian preoccupations. It is an Imperialist intervention aiming to protect the interest of French multinationals in the region. The recent collapse of the Malian state and the Jihadi offensive in the north of the country threatens to destabilise neighbouring countries, whose natural resources are exploited by the French ruling class on a vast scale: Uranium in Niger, gold in Mauritania, gas and petrol in Algeria etc.