Cape Town - The ruling military junta in Mali has launched a procedure to suspend broadcasts by French state-funded international RFI radio and France 24 television, accusing the news outlets of reporting "false allegations" of abuse by the Malian army, Reuters reported on Thursday.
According to news broadcaster Al Jazeera, the allegations were made by the head of the United Nations human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet and rights group Human Rights Watch.
They were then reported in news reports by RFI and France 24 this week, according to a statement by the authorities on Thursday.
Relations between the countries have soured in recent months, as anti-French sentiment rises in the Sahel region.
Last month, France and military allies said they would leave Mali after almost a decade based there fighting Islamist insurgents around the Sahel, moving instead to Niger despite public disenchantment with Paris' role in the region.
Mali's capacity to fight against Islamist groups on its territory is now Mali's own problem, France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, a day after his government announced it was withdrawing from Mali.
Mali has been battling an Islamist insurgency for a decade, with groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State expanding their reach in recent years despite the presence of French troops and about 13 000 UN peacekeepers deployed to stem the violence.
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali Minusma says more than 250 of its personnel have died since 2013, making it the deadliest of more than a dozen UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.
IOL