Withdrawal, redeployment, Wagner mercenaries… In a speech of about fifty minutes, the Head of State took stock of the current and future situation of Barkhane’s forces in the African country.
The expected announcement came Thursday morning in a morning press release: France, Canada and their European allies are starting the “coordinated withdrawal” of their armed forces in Mali who arrived in the country in 2013. In an address to the press, Emmanuel Macron then specified the next few months.
Release returns to the main points of the intervention of the President of the Republic concerning the French military commitment in West Africa.
Mali is not a failure, it did not work
French President Emmanuel Macron “reject completely” the idea of a French failure in Mali, while Paris has decided to withdraw its troops from the country after nine years of anti-jihadist struggle. “What would have happened in 2013 if France had not chosen to intervene? You would for sure have a collapse of the Malian state”he argued during his press conference this Thursday morning, adding that“then our soldiers achieved many successes”including the elimination of the emir of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi) in June 2020.
Once is not custom Emmanuel Macron, in the preamble to his speech, spoke well of his predecessor François Hollande, judging that he had taken “a courageous decision” by deciding to intervene in Mali in 2013.
A withdrawal during the year
The closure of the last French bases in Mali will take “four to six months” declared Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, announcing the withdrawal of French, European and Canadian soldiers from this country led by a military junta. “During this time […] we will continue to ensure the security missions of the Minusma”, the UN Mission in Mali, with more than 13,000 blue helmets, specified the President at a press conference.
Thursday morning, the Elysée mentioned “June 2022” as a deadline for defining the new system in the Sahel. Another 2,500 to 3,000 French soldiers will remain in the region from here after the withdrawal from Mali within 6 months indicates the General Staff.
Soldiers redeployed to Niger
If France leaves Mali, it does not neglect the Sahel, assured the Elysée. European soldiers participating in the Takuba Special Forces Group “will be repositioned alongside the Nigerien armed forces in the border region of Mali”President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday after the announcement of the withdrawal from Mali of the French force Barkhane and Takuba.
“This withdrawal will result in the closure of the rights-of-way of Gossi de Ménaka and Gao, it will be carried out in an orderly manner, with the Malian armed forces and with the United Nations Mission in Mali” and “During this period, we will maintain our support missions for the benefit of the Minusma”said the head of state during a press conference.
“Al-Qaeda and Daesh have chosen to make Africa, the Sahel in particular, and now increasingly the Gulf of Guinea, a priority in their expansion strategy”, Macron justified.
Deep differences with the Malian junta
If France and its allies are leaving, it is because of the soldiers who have taken power in Mali. “We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de facto authorities with whom we share neither the strategy nor the hidden objectives. This is the situation we face today in Mali. The fight against terrorism cannot justify everything, it must not, under the pretext of being an absolute priority, turn into an exercise in the indefinite retention of power”, Macron pointed out.
In their joint press release, the allies notably reproach the Bamako junta which came to power after two coups d’etat for not having respected its commitments by refusing to organize democratic elections.
The problem of the Wagner mercenaries
Russian roughnecks, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin, “mainly come to secure their economic interests and the junta itself, that’s the reality of what we see”, according to Emmanuel Macron. While the Malian authorities continue to deny their presence on their territory, the President of the Republic estimated the number of Wagner’s men at 800 on Malian soil, a figure already mentioned by several French security sources.
“These mercenaries have been present for years in Libya to take resources and what should go to the Libyan people […]. They have been present for several years in the Central African Republic with terrible abuses against the civilian population.denounced the head of state. “They arrive in Mali with predatory purposes […] because the junta, which is in power after two coups, considers them to be the best partners they can find to protect their own power, not to fight terrorism,” he hammered.
Emmanuel Macron also made gloomy predictions: “You are going to have more and more private companies using terrorism-related insecurity […]they will not be only Russian.