The French soldiers will leave Mali for good “at the end of the summer”, after the transfer to the Malian forces of the base of Gao, according to the staff.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
The departure of the Barkhane anti-jihadist force is becoming clearer. The French army is to officially leave the Ménaka military base in northeastern Mali on Monday (June 13th), the French general staff has announced. This handing over of the keys to the Malian armed forces marks the penultimate stage of the process of withdrawal from the country, announced by Emmanuel Macron in February.
Opened in 2018, the Ménaka base, on the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, notably housed the group of French and European special forces Takuba, which aimed to help the Malian forces gain autonomy. Monday’s departure “was conducted in good order, in safety and in complete transparency, in a context where the Barkhane force faces regular information attacks aimed at tarnishing its action and its credibility”comments the staff.
French soldiers will leave Mali for good “at the end of summer”, with the transfer to Malian forces of the Gao base, the main French hold in the country, according to General Pascal Ianni.
Relations between the ruling junta in Bamako and Paris have deteriorated sharply in recent months, especially since the arrival in Mali of paramilitaries from the Russian group Wagner. The day after the previous handover of a French base, in April, in Gossi, the French general staff had broadcast videos shot by a drone near this area showing paramilitaries from the Russian company Wagner burying bodies with a view to accusing France of war crimes.