This is a new setback for French diplomacy. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, had barely left Chad when the Chadian government abruptly announced the end of military cooperation agreements with Paris. “ France must consider that Chad has grown […] and that it is a State very jealous of its sovereignty », declared N'Djamena after an interview between the French minister and President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, who has led the country since the death of his father in 2021. Although the Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs sought to qualify this decision by affirming that it was not a question of a total break, France nevertheless saw itself sidelined by a regime that it had nevertheless supported for decades.
This decision marks above all the loss of France's last military point of support in the Sahel, where it still maintained an air base and nearly a thousand soldiers. Although the troop withdrawal date has not yet been specified, RFI reports that“there is a certain excitement in Parisian offices”according to several officers. In reality, “the presidency, the prime minister's office, the general staff of the armed forces and the intelligence services are in turmoil this Friday morning, with a crisis meeting and a defense council organized urgently at the Élysée to understand the origin of this reverse ».
A few hours before this announcement, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye also declared that he wanted to put an end to the French military presence, even though Paris was already considering gradually reducing its troops, currently 350 soldiers. “ Sovereignty does not accommodate the presence of military bases », he affirmed, insisting on the need for France to consider partnerships devoid of a military dimension, like those concluded with powers like China. This decision is part of the policy of strengthening national independence, made a priority since his election in May 2024.
These announcements are part of an underlying trend: since 2022, several African countries have decided to turn the page on military cooperation with France, often against a backdrop of rejection of its historical influence. It all started in Mali, where Paris was seen as an indispensable ally against jihadist groups during operations Serval and Barkhane. Welcomed with enthusiasm in 2013, these interventions nevertheless ended up crystallizing tensions between Paris and Bamako.
A series of departures starting in 2022
Nearly nine years after the arrival of French troops, the 5,000 soldiers still present in Mali finally leave the country in 2022, pushed out by a military junta that has come to power. This departure comes just six months after the arrival of Russian paramilitaries from the Wagner group, marking a change of allegiance on the part of the Malian authorities.
The rest after this ad
A few months later, France also left the Central African Republic. In this country where it had deployed more than a thousand soldiers in 2013 as part of Operation Sangaris, French troops are withdrawing in 2022, again unofficially replaced by Russian instructors, while the country seeks to turn the tide. back to its former colonial power.
In February 2023, it is Burkina Faso's turn to request the departure of French forces, present since 2009 under the name Force Sabre, as part of the fight against jihadists. Under the leadership of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power after a double coup d'état, the Burkinabe government suddenly granted France 30 days to pack up, denouncing the military agreements in place.
A disenchantment with multiple roots
Still in 2023, in August, it is in Niger, although long considered a faithful ally, that the rupture occurs. The ruling junta demands the withdrawal of 1,500 French soldiers, denouncing security cooperation agreements. Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane, spokesperson for the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP), denounces an attitude deemed “ casual » from France, putting an end to a presence of more than ten years in the country.
The growing rejection of the French military presence can be explained by several factors. France's colonial history on the continent continues to weigh on its image, fueled by a perception of persistent interference and sometimes exaggerated by disinformation circulating on social networks. According to Caroline Roussy, research director at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), “ the anti-French argument becomes a political lever » for certain leaders, who rely on a feeling of sovereignism to strengthen their popularity.
In Mali, the perceived failure of the Barkhane mission crystallized this disenchantment. While Operation Serval made it possible to reestablish state authority over a large part of the territory in a few months, the Barkhane mission, which was much longer, did not succeed in lastingly stabilizing the region. After nearly ten years of French presence, the Malian population had not seen any significant improvement in their security, fueling frustration and distrust.
Finally, France must now face growing foreign competition. Russia, through the Wagner group, and China, with its economic partnerships devoid of a military dimension, are intensifying their influence in Africa. For regimes often eager to demonstrate their sovereignty, these alliances offer a more neutral alternative than that of France, still marked by the memory of colonization.
Thus, more than sixty years after independence, the French military presence, once perceived as a guarantee of stability, is today rejected by countries which wish to redefine their international relations and definitively turn the page on their colonial past.
