The officials from the Coordination of Patriotic Organizations in Mali (COPAM) said on Monday that they "do not support" the arrival in their country of soldiers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

While addressing the press in Bamako, COPAM chairman Younouss Hameye Dicko, his vice-chairman Rokia Sanogo and the group's spokesman Mohamed Taboure "denounced" the agreement signed on Saturday between Mali and ECOWAS, regarding the deployment of regional soldiers in the country.

"We do not support the arrival of ECOWAS troops in Mali. It's the security of our children which is at stake, that of our lives, " they said.

According to them, "with the arrival of the ECOWAS troops, the plan for division of Mali will now be possible."

"This is something majority of the Malian people do not know about, that the proposal of federalism is hidden behind the idea of deployment of West African forces in the country," the COPAM officials said.

Speaking about the ongoing national consultations, the three officials said that "the process was not credible."

The SADI party chairman Oumar Mariko who is also the leader of COPAM, said that Mali's military authorities, including the Defence Minister Amadou Sanogo who led the National Committee for Redressment of Democracy and Restoration of the State (CNRDRE), were duped into accepting the arrival of ECOWAS troops, since those troops are not coming to help Mali.

Mariko expressed hope that ex-fighters of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and Ansar Dine have indicated that they will come to fight against the ECOWAS troops if they arrive in Bamako.