President Emmanuel Macron has declared that France and its European partners will withdraw their soldiers from Mali after nearly a decade.
Since 2013, the army have been active in the war against Islamist extremists in the nation.
Mr Macron stated that his decision to depart was prompted by a breakdown in diplomatic ties, as well as increased antagonism from Mali’s ruling military junta.
The military will be re-deployed somewhere in the Sahel area of Africa.
“We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de-facto authorities whose strategy and hidden aims we do not share,” Mr Macron said at a press conference in Paris on Thursday.
He denied suggestions that the pull-out was an admission of failure and emphasized that France will continue to fight Islamist insurgencies in the region.
“France has played a unifying role in this international mobilisation in favour of the Sahel,” he explained. “We will continue to ensure this unifying role.”
The pull-out, which is likely to take four to six months, was announced on Wednesday night following a summit of European and African leaders at the Élysée Palace.
Nations engaged in the French-led Tabuka Task Force said in a statement issued Thursday morning that they had agreed to lay out strategies for how to continue actively involved in the area, particularly in Niger and the Gulf of Guinea countries, by June.
As part of Operation Barkhane, about 5,000 French troops are deployed in the Sahel area to battle Islamist insurgencies, with approximately 2,400 of them stationed at three locations in northern Mali.
However, ties between France and Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries, have worsened since the army seized control in an August 2020 coup.
Last month, the junta violated an agreement to conduct elections in February and declared that it would stay in power until 2025, leading to the expulsion of the French ambassador.
More than a dozen Western countries also criticised the deployment of mercenaries from the Russia-based Wagner organization to Mali in December.
The organization has been involved in a number of important wars, including those in Syria, Mozambique, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. A BBC investigation discovered linkages to Libyan war crimes.
On Thursday, Mr. Macron warned that the group had “essentially come to secure their economic interests and the junta itself”
Senegalese President Macky Sall said he understood why France opted to withdraw its soldiers from Mali and that he was certain the struggle against Islamist extremists in the Sahel would continue.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said it was critical that a UN peacekeeping force stay active in Mali despite the departure of the French.
According to a UN official, there would “bound to be an impact” on the organization’s activities.
