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The French army is withdrawing from Mali, Emmanuel Macron announced on the morning of Thursday, February 17. The soldiers had been engaged in the country since 2013.
Emmanuel Macron spoke in the presence of European and African leaders on Thursday February 17 to announce the end of Operation Barkhane in Mali. “We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de facto authorities whose strategy or hidden objectives we share”, he justified. The withdrawal was welcomed by part of the population of Bamako (Mali), in the morning.
Operation Barkhane was launched in 2013 by François Hollande, in order to stem the progress of jihadist groups, which threatened the Malian capital. The situation today is untenable, between a certain anti-French feeling, and since the last coup d’etat a military junta hostile to the French presence.
2,000 French soldiers are still there, the last bases will be closed by the summer. 53 French soldiers lost their lives during Operation Barkhane, such as the quartermaster Damien Noblet. “This disengagement is an acknowledgment of failure”, confides his sister. If in nine years, many terrorist leaders have been killed and the big cities are less threatened, the jihadist groups are now scattered towards the south, and new countries are under attack. France will redeploy nearly 3,000 troops to the rest of the Sahel.