FRENCH FORCES BEGIN NORTHERN MALI DRAWDOWN

Thu 14 October 2021:

France has begun to withdraw troops from its northernmost Malian sites as part of “Operation Barkhane,” a plan to reorganize its military deployed in the restive Sahel area.

By the end of the year, French army bases at Kidal, Tessalit, and Timbuktu in northern Mali will be closed and handed over to the Malian army.

While air support will continue to be provided, the 5,100 French troops now stationed in the Sahel will be reduced to around 3,000. The Malian military will be supported in combat by European special troops stationed in the Takuba task force.

“The idea is not to create a vacuum. The idea is to leave the responsibility of these areas to the Malian state,” said General Etienne du Peyroux of the French Barkhane force. “To avoid the risk of getting stuck in conflict, we need a response that is not only military.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said last Friday at a summit that his country has “no goal of staying in Mali for a long time.”

The Africa-France Summit was held in Montpellier, where young Africans participated without the involvement of the heads of states of African countries.

Wagner’s polemic between France, Mali

The Prime Minister of Mali, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, accused France, which decided to withdraw from Mali, of acting unilaterally when allegations were raised that Russian security company, Wagner, would be stationed in the country.

Laurent Michon, commander of Operation Barkhane, which France is conducting in the Sahel, also said that the Bamako administration has been in talks for about two years about the decision to withdraw from three bases in northern Mali.

Macron, however, was shocked by Maiga’s comments, stating that “These shameful statements from a country where there have been two consecutive coups, where there is not even a government, are unacceptable.

“We are in Mali at the request of the state of Mali. Without France, Mali would have fallen into the hands of terrorists.”

French Ambassador to Bamako, M. Joel Meyer, was then summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mali on Oct. 6.

After eight years of war against jihadist militants, swathes of Mali’s territory remain outside the authorities’ control.

France sent troops to Mali in 2013 after unrest broke out in the north of the country. But relations between the two countries deteriorated following a coup in August 2020 which toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

(with agencies) FILE PHOTO

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