The Executive spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga stated through the document that an A400 military transport aircraft registered FRBAN made a flight on the Abidjan-Gao- Abidjan route on January 11.

It indicated that the aircraft, while it violated Malian airspace, turned off its transponder so as not to be identified and cut off communication with the air-traffic agencies of this country.

However, despite the fraudulent maneuver, the recently acquired national defense capabilities made it possible to identify and track the aircraft’s trajectory, the report stated.

Upon reporting the national and international public opinion, included the French Government itself, Malian authorities warned that they “decline all responsibility for the risks to which the perpetrators of those practices could expose themselves in case that they violate airspace again.”

Such action takes place some few days after the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), made up of 15 countries, imposed sanctions to this state, to which France attached, with the objective that the ruling military junta restores the constitutional order in the country with the holding of early elections.

pgh/iff/mem/obf