On the military base in Timbuktu (Mali) on laterite soil, in front of an audience of soldiers and officers, the tricolor was taken down on Tuesday, December 14 to make way for the Malian flag. The 150 French soldiers packed their bags as part of the reorganization of Operation Barkhane.
After Kidal and Tessalit a few weeks ago, this withdrawal is a strong symbol: it is in Timbuktu, holy city of Islam listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, that the former French President François Hollande launched with great fanfare. French intervention against the jihadists. That was almost nine years ago, in February 2013.
#Mali : after 8 years there, the French army left its base in #Tombouctou this Tuesday. The right of way has been ceded to @Famas pic.twitter.com/5JZ0zSO4kX
– Manon Laplace (@Manon_Laplace) December 14, 2021
Since then, the operation has stalled. After several months of tracking jihadists in the mountains, Operation Serval becomes Operation Barkahne and its mandate extends to neighboring countries. But the Sahel is immense and impossible to pacify.
The French army is increasingly seen as an occupying army, ineffective and even unfairly murderous, while jihadist groups are gaining influence and are gradually establishing themselves in the background, in a form of cohabitation with the inhabitants. Their fighters often come from the same communities. Today, they also manage the daily life: around Timbuktu, for a case of theft or conflict, we prefer to go see the Muslim judge of the emirate rather than the state justice.
According to the UN, the number of attacks against civilians has never been lower since 2015, when Bamako and northern rebel groups signed peace agreements. Nomadic refugees who had fled to Mauritania and Algeria have returned. Schools and churches have been able to reopen under certain conditions. However, the situation remains fragile: no Westerner can go to this area without a military escort.
The French soldiers left Timbuktu but not completely Mali: rather we entered a phase of reorganization. In 2023, there will be only 3,000 French people in the Sahel against 5,000 in recent weeks. The army will redeploy to the south and change tactics.
Rather than having bases all over the place, which is logistically very heavy and which also makes soldiers more vulnerable to attacks, there will be fewer conventional personnel but more intelligence activities, with drones and planes. Special forces will integrate with Tabuka, the European force supposed to take over. Confronted with growing hostility, France is now emphasizing an internationalization of the military effort by involving its European allies more and focusing on the rise of local armies.
In #Centrafrique already, the customs officers and the elements of #Wagner are at loggerheads because the Russian mercenaries want to get their hands on the country’s customs revenue! Is this the future whose #Mali dream? https://t.co/Pvmh8ZAA4t pic.twitter.com/OBYtwQp3pS
– Ashley Leïla MAIGA (@AshleyLelaMAIGA) December 11, 2021
But the contacts of the military in power in Bamako with the Russian paramilitary company Wagner worried France and its allies. There was no question for Paris to conduct joint field operations with Russian auxiliaries, often accused of abuses and suspected of being close to Russian President Vladimir Poutine. The European Union has just sanctioned this group – as well as eight people and three companies linked to it – for the “destabilization actions“carried out in several African countries, including Mali, and in Ukraine. In particular, it deprived them of visas.
a Christmas of troops under pressure: @EmmanuelMacron will spend Christmas 2021 with strength #Barkhane to #Mali. As in 2020 for Lebanon (canceled due to COVID), 2019 in RCI, 2018 in Chad … he will talk about the country’s news (#Wagner and end of transition) with the leaders @GoitaAssimi pic.twitter.com/2OyUrv3uTn
– Sega DIARRAH (@segadiarrah) December 14, 2021
Emmanuel Macron will have the opportunity to talk about it with the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, whom he will meet on Monday, December 20 in Bamako. This will be the first time since the latter came to the head of the country by a putsch, in August 2020, before being reinforced by a second coup in May 2021. Emmanuel Macron should also discuss the electoral calendar, so that the West African leaders, meeting Sunday at the summit in Nigeria, again demanded elections in February 2022 and announced that without commitment from the Malian authorities, they would impose additional sanctions from January 1.
The Head of State will then share a Christmas meal with the French troops stationed at Gao, the main French base in the Sahel which remains open and which will host the command of the Takuba force.