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France will cut its military operations in the Sahel to focus more closely on fighting Islamist terrorism, but will continue to cooperate with the armies of its African and international allies outside the Sahara, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.
Paris has maintained great strength in the region, which currently has more than 5,000 troops, since Macron’s predecessor François Hollande sent troops to Mali to prevent the country from falling into the hands of jihadists eight years ago.
Like the Americans who have fought the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Isis in Afghanistan since 2001 and who are now retiring, Macron made it clear that France was dissatisfied with the failure of the Sahel governments to effectively administer the territory briefly recaptured from the jihadists by military operations.
“It is not France’s role to be forever replaced in the states of the region,” Macron said he said at a press conference in Paris ahead of the G7 summit of the UK’s major democracies this weekend. “The time has come.”
He gave no number of troops or timetable for the withdrawal of French forces, but said Operation Barkhane would end in its current form and be replaced by a “new framework” with two pillars: an ongoing campaign led by French and allied special forces against terrorist Islamists and cooperation with the national armies of the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea.
In February, Macron delayed the planned reduction of forces in the Sahel, but warned that he wanted to do so eventually. avoid the “infinite war”.
France’s presence in the region has become increasingly unpopular as its operations have been losing ground, provoking anti-French protests in some cities. Many politicians and ordinary citizens continue to distrust its former colonial power, which maintains a strong cultural, economic, diplomatic and political influence in Africa.
French forces have killed several Islamist leaders in recent years and many observers argue that their presence is essential to preserving the little stability left in the region. But violence, including massacres of civilians by Islamist extremists, has spread steadily from the north to the center of Mali and across the borders to Niger i Burkina Faso.
Extremist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Isis have taken advantage of long-standing community tensions and filled the gap of largely absent governments across the region to capture large swathes of territory.
Both Sahelians and European diplomats in the region have criticized France for providing a good service to improving governance, despite being largely focused on the security response, despite widespread recognition that there is no military solution. to the problems in the Sahel.
Macron again rejected the idea of negotiating with Islamists who killed French soldiers and citizens, although locals tired of violence often favor such conversations.
Despite Macron’s warnings, the authorities in Mali and Burkina Faso have already held talks and brokered some temporary highs in a region where a man could be a smuggler, bandit, ethnic militia or jihadist, depending on the day and situation. .
Additional report by David Keohane to Paris
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