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The leader of Mali’s military junta, Colonel Assimi Goita, on Tuesday urged support for French and United Nations troops, a frequent target of popular anger in the war-torn country.

Speaking to reporters during a ceremony marking Mali’s 60 years of independence from France, Goita asked Malians to support national troops as well as “partner forces” from France and the UN.

Mali has struggled to contain a jihadist insurgency that first emerged in the north in 2012, and which has since spread to the centre of the country and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of foreign troops in Mali do …