the French military presence is called into question in Chad and Senegal

Based on several anonymous sources, the AFP announced a drastic reduction in the French military presence in Africa. If Chad remains a stronghold of the French army, Senegal, one of the large bases still existing, should see its numbers decrease.

If France drastically reduces its military presence in Africa, as announced by AFP, this would be a significant turnaround. Indeed, the military is still present in Chad and Senegal, for its part, still hosts a large base, but its numbers should go from 350 to around a hundred.

Chad hosts the last Barkhane soldiers

There are 1,000 French soldiers positioned, the vast majority in the capital’s air base, but also in camps in two towns in the country, in Abéché in the east and in Faya-Largeau in the north. If the information published by AFP is confirmed, their number would increase to 300, a way of being less visible, explains a diplomat.

Chad is the last country in the Sahel where French soldiers from the former Operation Barkhane were repositioned after being chased out of Mali, Burkina Faso or Niger. In these three countries, the soldiers who took power changed allies and asked the French to pack up by calling on Wagner’s pro-Russian mercenaries.

In Chad, there is no proven presence of these new military partners, even if rumors are rife, particularly following the recent softening of ties between N’Djamena and Moscow. However, there is in the Chadian capital, as elsewhere in the Sahel, a widespread feeling in society that this French military presence should be profoundly rethought, or even, for some, simply put an end to it.

A large part of the population is young and does not see the point of having French soldiers in their country. It is to respond to this increasingly widespread feeling that Emmanuel Macron appointed former Minister of Cooperation Jean-Marie Bockel four months ago to discuss with the countries concerned, including Chad.

The arrival of Jean-Marie Bockel did not go unnoticed in N’Djamena, since after a tête-à-tête with President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, the former French minister declared to the press that “France must stay”.

Since Chad’s independence in 1960, Paris has maintained an almost uninterrupted military presence. It has always been coupled with hitherto inexorable support for successive Chadian regimes. For its part, N’Djamena has always supported the French war effort in the Sahel.

The new Senegalese regime wants to see the soldiers leave

One of the large French bases still existing in West Africa has been in Dakar, Senegal since 2011, although there have been several others since 1974 in the country. Officially, there are still 350 soldiers based in Dakar. These soldiers are called the EFS, for French elements in Senegal. Unlike Bakhane, they are not fighters, but trainers.

Their mission is to be a “operational cooperation center” with a regional vocation. Clearly, the EFS provide training for soldiers from Senegal, with whom they organize joint training exercises, but also for other armies in the region, in around ten countries, such as Guinea-Bissau, Benin or even Mauritania.

These training courses are aimed at land and air forces, but also at soldiers deployed at sea to support the fight against piracy and terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea. All in a logic of support for national armies rather than a direct fight against terrorist groups. According to information from AFP, there will therefore be only around a hundred left in the long term, but the precise timetable is not known and the EFS did not respond to our requests for details.

Since coming to power, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and especially his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko have repeatedly expressed their wish to review the partnership with France, starting with this French military presence on their soil.

Ousmane Sonko explained that he wanted Senegal to have its military bases and during a conference with Jean-Luc Mélenchon in May in Dakar, he questioned “the impact of this presence on our national sovereignty and our strategic autonomy”. But this is not a clean break like in neighboring countries and the Prime Minister has made it clear that he is not calling into question the bilateral defense agreements, but no timetable has been put forward on the Senegalese side for the departure of the soldiers. French.

It must, however, be remembered that the debate on the reduction of French bases in Africa dates from before the election of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, since Emmanuel Macron had put it on the table in February 2023. The EFS, which were still 500 at the start 2023, had already planned to reduce their size by half for the summer of 2024, going to 260.

A source at the Senegalese presidency confirms that this partial departure of French forces was not done at the injunction of the new regime. In any case, President Diomaye Faye is expected in Paris on June 20, where he will meet his counterpart Emmanuel Macron for the first time and the subject will probably be on the table.