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France will not withdraw troops from the Sahel

Photo:TWD

 

The World Daily | News Desk           FEBRUARY  17th   2021

 

French President Emmanuel Macron informed participants of the G5 summit in Chad that there would not be an immediate withdrawal of French troops from the Sahel region. Currently, 5,100 French soldiers are serving on the Barkhane mission. Germany will not send its forces to this region of Africa.

 

According to French President Emmenuel Macron, it would be "paradoxical" to weaken the anti-jihadist operation while France has "favourable political and military ties" in the Sahel region. He also made the reservation that "there will no doubt be significant changes to the Sahel's military system in due course." The head of the French state announced this during a videoconference with the leaders of the G5 countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad), who held their meetings in N'Djamena. Macron stressed the need to strengthen the coalition's forces against jihadists.

Germany will not send soldiers on additional military missions in the Sahel region, said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, rejecting French requests to involve Germany in military operations against Islamist militants. "Germany participates with many soldiers in international missions in the Sahel: in the European training mission and in the UN mission" said Maas after the summit of the leaders of the Sahel region and their allies. "At the moment we are not going to engage in other missions, but rather focus on what we are already doing" he added.

Discussions on the withdrawal of French forces from the Sahel region.

 

Paris, however, counts on - as it puts it - "Sahelization" of the operation, that is, shifting the maintenance of the status quo in the region to local armies and "internationalization" of the military coalition in the Sahel, incl. as part of the European special forces Takuba, which currently consists of several hundred French, Estonian, Czech and Swedish soldiers. Macron welcomed the decision, announced the day before by Chad's President Idriss Deby, to send 1,200 additional troops to the border area of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Critics of the coalition's activities in the Sahel, however, point out that in 2020 more unarmed civilians died in the region than terrorists, and organizations linked to al-Qaeda are still present there. On the other hand, the situation at the junction of the three borders - Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso - remains tense and fights take place almost daily there, and coalition soldiers are the target of numerous terrorist attacks.

 

In France, a debate has been going on for many months over the withdrawal of French forces from the Sahel region. France has been part of Operation Barkhane since its inception in August 2014. Barkhane is a continuation of the French Serval military operations in Mali and Epervier in Chad.

 

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AfricaFranceSahelChadMaliBurkina FasoNigerConflicts