In Africa, the forced retreat of the French army continues

The French army has always considered it its stronghold in Africa. An aircraft carrier in the middle of the desert which, despite the headwinds coming from the Sahel in recent years, had to be preserved. Chad, which is home to one of France's five military bases on the continent, and where generations of French officers have succeeded one another since independence in 1960, announced on Thursday, November 28, that it was breaking the agreement defense linking the two countries. A decision “which marks a historic turning point”, according to the press release from Chadian diplomacy, which adds that the time has come “to assert its full sovereignty, and to redefine its strategic partnerships”.

If N'Djamena specifies that “this decision in no way calls into question (…) the ties of friendship between the two nations”the slap is unexpected for Paris. The press release came as the plane of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, had barely taken off from Chad – after a twenty-four hour express visit to the country. At the Elysée, at the Ministry of the Armed Forces, or even at the Quai d'Orsay, no one seemed to have been warned. Several French officers, visiting N'Djamena to discuss continued military cooperation, had also not been informed.

In fact, even on the Chadian side, some seemed surprised. According to corroborating sources, the Minister of Defense himself became aware of this decision by President Mahamat Idriss Déby just before the release of the press release. Elected in May, after succeeding his father in 2021, the 40-year-old general was France's last ally in the Sahel since the French army was driven out of Mali, Burkina Faso and then Niger by the juntas that took power there between 2020 and 2023. While he was already looking towards Moscow, where he went in January, the Chadian president hardly appreciated that the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) opens a preliminary investigation against him for suspicion of ill-gotten gains. “That was the spark that revolted the family,” relates an official in N'Djamena, agreeing that “Moscow is not far”, in ambush

“Perfume of breakup”

For the French army, the Chadian explosion is all the more disastrous as it comes a few hours after a first setback inflicted by another historic African partner: Senegal. Just before the N'Djamena announcement, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, defender of a sovereignist line, affirmed in an interview with Monde that there would soon be no more French soldiers – and therefore no more base in Dakar – in his country. Although French leaders readily minimize the phenomenon, after the divorce with the Sahelian countries, the cracks are increasingly visible in all the former colonies. “It’s a development that has the scent of rupture. It's getting water from all sides.” notes an African diplomat.

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