An announcement marking the end of Operation Barkhane in Mali. While Emmanuel Macron formalized the withdrawal of French troops in February, the last French soldiers left the country after nine years of presence, the General Staff of the armies announced on Monday.
“Today, at 1:00 p.m., the last detachment of the Barkhane force present on Malian soil crossed the borders between Mali and Niger,” the Armed Forces General Staff announced in a press release.
The forces have been redeployed outside the country, it is specified, as announced by Emmanuel Macron on February 17. “The profound transformation of Operation Barkhane cannot be reduced to the end of its presence on Malian territory. In a logic of co-construction, the French armies continue the fight against terrorism in the Sahel, in coordination with our African and international partners” . the statement said.
Driven by a hostile Malian junta
On February 17, noting that “the political and operational conditions to remain engaged in Mali no longer existed”, France had decided to reorganize the Operation Barkhane device “outside Malian territory”, Elysium recalled.
The military presence in the Sahel will be cut in half by the end of the year, to 2,500 soldiers. Niger has accepted the maintenance of an air base in Niamey and the support of 250 soldiers for its military operations on the border with Mali. Chad will continue to host a French checkpoint in N’Djamena and France hopes to retain a contingent of special forces in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.
Pushed out by a hostile Malian junta, the French have for the past six months transferred all their controls to the Malian army, the last of which, in Gao (north), on Monday.
59 French soldiers killed in nine years of presence
In total, France had to leave Mali about 4,000 containers and a thousand vehicles, including hundreds of armored vehicles, while the Sahel is experiencing an outbreak of violence, which the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, a new ally of Bamako, is fighting to stop.
More than 2,000 civilians have died in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso since the beginning of the year, already more than the 2,021 registered for all of 2021, according to AFP calculations based on a compilation by the specialized NGO Acled.
In nine years of presence in the Sahel, the French army has lost 59 soldiers.
Source: BFM TV
