The French army has set up a command for Africa, as the American armies have long done, at a pivotal moment in the French military presence, which is in sharp decline on the continent, according to the Official newspaper. Dated Wednesday, June 26, JO stipulate that “Brigadier General Pascal Ianni [est] appointed general commanding the Africa command » from 1is august.
General Ianni, former member of the military cabinet of the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly, also served as spokesperson for the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. He was responsible for anticipation and strategy within the army general staff, specializing in issues of influence and informational combat.
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This unprecedented creation in France of a command for Africa, announced by several corroborating sources to Agence France-Presse (AFP) in mid-June, comes as Paris plans to reduce its presence to a few hundred men. military in West and Central Africa, within the framework of partnerships “renovated” and more discreet. A change decided after the bitter disappointments in the Sahel.
Some 600 soldiers
According to the plan envisaged by the executive, revealed to AFP by three concordant sources and currently being discussed with African partners, France will in principle only keep around a hundred soldiers in Gabon (compared to 350 today), around a hundred in Senegal (compared to 350), around a hundred in Ivory Coast (600 today) and around 300 in Chad (1,000 currently).
The system should thus have around 600 soldiers in the future, but will be expected to grow occasionally depending on the needs of the partners, according to these three sources. Until two years ago, in addition to some 1,600 forces prepositioned in West Africa and Gabon, the former colonial power had more than 5,000 soldiers in the Sahel as part of the anti-jihadist operation “Barkhane”. It was gradually pushed out by the juntas that came to power in Bamako (2021-2022), Ouagadougou and Niamey (2023).
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The president, Emmanuel Macron, commissioned former minister Jean-Marie Bockel in February to discuss with African partners the new arrangements for the French military presence on their soil. Its conclusions are expected in July.
The French base in Djibouti, which hosts 1,500 French soldiers, is not affected by this reduction in force.
