Malian authorities were on Friday searching for possible accomplices in what they say is a foreign government-backed plot to destabilise the country. This follows the arrest of a French national suspected of working for French intelligence services along with several Malian soldiers.
In a statement read on national television, Security Minister General Daoud Aly Mohammedine announced the arrests of what he described as a small group of marginal members of the Malian armed forces for criminal offences.
"Military personnel and civilians, with the help of foreign states, wanted to break up the rebuilding of Mali," he said.
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Mali's ruling junta seized power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021. Since then, President Assimi Goita's administration has distanced itself from Western partners, especially former colonial power France, and strengthened political and military ties with Russia in the name of national sovereignty.
The country has faced a security crisis since 2012, driven by violence from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, along with local criminal gangs.
The Malian army and its Russian allies have been tasked with fighting these armed groups, but are regularly accused of abuses against civilians.
'Arrest of two generals'
The junta confirmed the arrests of two generals - Néma Sagara and Abbas Dembélé. Dembélé, formerly in command in northern Mali, was later appointed governor of the central Mopti region before being dismissed recently without official explanation.
Sagara, a brigadier general in the air force staff, is one of the few women in the Malian army to have reached that rank.
On Tuesday, Mali's civilian former prime minister Choguel Maiga and a number of his former colleagues were taken into custody as part of an investigation into claims of "misappropriation of public funds".
Maiga, a former junta heavyweight, was appointed prime minister in 2021 before being dismissed at the end of last year after criticising the military government.
He had hit out at being excluded from decisions about the continued leadership of the generals, who had initially promised to hand power back to elected civilians in March 2024.
