President Emmanuel Macron officially announced, this Wednesday from Toulon, the end of the anti-jihadist operation Barkhane in the Sahel, just under three months after the withdrawal of French soldiers from Mali.
The Head of State, on a visit to Toulon, gave a general speech on French Defense strategy, “an opportunity to officially mark the end of Operation Barkhane and to announce a significant adaptation of our bases in Africa”, had specified the Elysée upstream.
This announcement has no consequence on the French military presence in the region, because French soldiers have already withdrawn from Mali, and 3,000 French soldiers remain deployed in Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.
French army pushed out of Mali by ruling junta
The Barkhane force counted up to 5,500 soldiers at the height of its deployment in the Sahel. Pushed out of Mali by the junta in power since 2020, which now works, even if it denies it, with the sulphurous Russian paramilitary group Wagner, the French army definitively left the country in mid-August, after nine years of struggle. anti-jihadist.
However, it remains in the region and continues to fight against jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, which are gradually extending their activities to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea. According to the Elysée, the principle is “to reduce the exposure and visibility of our military forces in Africa, to focus on cooperation and support, mainly in terms of equipment, training, intelligence and operational partnership when countries so wish”.
Russia’s growing influence in Africa
As soon as the announcement in February of Mali’s departure, France announced its desire to launch discussions with African states on this issue. Even if it does not intend to abandon the anti-jihadist fight, Paris must come to terms with an increasingly hostile African public opinion and within which the influence of rival powers, Moscow in the lead, se reinforces via social networks and official media.
A recent report by the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School (Irsem), dependent on the French Ministry of Defence, thus described in Mali the “proliferation of disinformation content online, most often intended to denigrate the French presence and justify that of Russia”. He also noted the contagion in neighboring Burkina.
The idea now is to continue to act, but in discretion. No new names have been given to the troops now deployed. “Our soldiers remain covered, protected, supported, administered in conditions that are satisfactory” but the official announcement is “locally needed”had specified the Elysee.