“According to French President Emmanuel Macron, the French army is leaving African countries because it does not want to help the juntas that came to power with the support of Russia. Source: Macron on Monday at the annual conference of ambassadors in Paris, quoted by “Ukrinform” Details: The French president noted that his country helped sovereign African states by conducting anti-terrorist operations against jihadists.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
According to French President Emmanuel Macron, the French army is leaving African countries because it does not want to help the juntas that came to power with the support of Russia.
Source: Macron on Monday at the annual conference of ambassadors in Paris, Ukrinform cites
Details: The French president noted that his country has been helping sovereign African states by conducting anti-terrorist operations against jihadists.
Direct speech Macron: “We left because there were coups and because we were there at the request of the sovereign states that asked France to come. However, France no longer had a place there because we are not helpers of the putschists.”
Details: In his opinion, France is not retreating in Africa, it is simply “maturing and reorganizing”.
France has been involved in military operations in the Sahel for 10 years to fight jihadists linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group. During this time, 58 French soldiers died there.
However, it was forced to withdraw its troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger between 2022 and 2023 after military juntas aligned with Russia came to power in those three countries.
At the end of December, the first contingent of French soldiers also left Chad, and soon the French army is due to leave Senegal, whose president previously stated that the presence of foreign troops in the country is incompatible with its sovereignty.
Direct speech Macron: “We have proposed to the African heads of state to reorganize our presence. And this is good because the world is changing and we must accept this new partnership with the continent.”
Details: At the same time, he emphasized that African leaders “forgot to thank” for everything that France has done for them since 2013.
Direct speech Macron: “None of them would be able to rule a sovereign country without this intervention. So it’s not serious, it will come with time.”
We will remind: Last summer, the governments of Mali and Niger announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine.