“We are not intended to be engaged without a time limit,” insisted the head of state on the trip to Toulon, where he presented France’s military ambitions for 2030.
From our special correspondent in Toulon
The main French foreign operation is coming to an end. “ Our interventions must be limited in time “, assured the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, announcing “the end of Barkhane”. “ We are not intended to be engaged without a time limit “, he insisted. On board the amphibious helicopter carrier Dixmude in the port of Toulon, where he presented the new National Strategic Review which defines France’s military ambitions for 2030, the Head of State Emmanuel Macron confirmed, as announced, the end of the French operation in the Sahel. France had been engaged militarily against armed jihadist groups since 2013. Last August, it left Mali on a finding of political disagreement with Bamako and a feeling of military stalemate, failing to overcome the threat. He said nothing about how many troops will remain deployed and how to combat the lingering terrorist threat.
Instability in Sahelian Africa
“ Our military support (to the African states of the Sahel) will continue, but according to terms that we will define with them. “, continued the President of the Republic. The French army is engaged in Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso. It also has bases and prepositioned forces in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Gabon and Djibouti. The French commitment could take the form of support, training, an operational partnership or of strategic privacy “, according to the expression of Emmanuel Macron. But it will have to be in support of the efforts of States and according to explicitly formulated needs. The political instability in Sahelian Africa makes the ability of these States to carry out their missions uncertain. The weight of colonial history also weights the relationship. The French presence was sometimes experienced as a challenge to sovereignty ” Where “ used by opposing powers in the information field.
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The President announced the launch “ of an exchange phase to change the status, format and missions of the French bases in West Africa and the Sahel. It must end in six months “. Considering that after almost ten years of military operation, the expectations of African states would still have to be defined, Emmanuel Macron draws up an acknowledgment of the failure of the Franco-Sahelian relationship. It needs to be reinvented, in a context where Africa has become the field of a hybrid confrontation between the West and its Chinese and Russian competitors. Wagner’s Kremlin-linked mercenaries supplanted France in Mali. “ We have seen enough how in Africa malicious narratives were set up at the instigation of external actors added the Head of State. On the occasion of his speech on the national strategic review, he announced the reinforcement of the means allocated to the function of influence of France.
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