The reduction of the French military presence in Africa is “neither a withdrawal nor a disengagement”, assures Emmanuel Macron

What military presence for France in Africa? Traveling to Libreville in Gabon, Emmanuel Macron assured, Thursday, March 2, that the reorganization of the French military system on the continent did not constitute “neither a withdrawal nor a disengagement”. It’s about “to adapt a device”by redefining the “needs” partner countries and offering “more cooperation and training”he declared in front of the French community in the Gabonese capital.

>> Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Mali… How did the French presence become undesirable in these African countries?

Two days before the launch of his tour in Africa on Monday, Emmanuel Macron had already reported a “visible decrease” in the coming months” French military personnel in Africa“, focused for ten years on the fight against jihadism in the Sahel. This development will be accompanied by a “rise in power in [les bases militaires françaises] of our African partners” and a “increased effort by France in terms of training and equipment”. France still deploys more than 4,000 soldiers in the region, particularly in Niger and Chad.

The end of the French “pre-square” in West Africa

Since August 2022, the French army has been pushed out of Mali and Burkina Faso by the ruling juntas in these two countries. Burkina also denounced on Tuesday a “military assistance agreement” signed in 1961 with France, the day after the country’s independence.

Emmanuel Macron called Monday at the end of the “square meadow” French in West Africa and promised new partnerships on the continent. “This age of Françafrique is over and I sometimes have the feeling that mentalities are not evolving at the same pace as us when I read, I hear, I see that France is still attributed intentions that she doesn’t have, that she doesn’t have anymore”he insisted Thursday before the French community in Gabon.