In the spotlight: the end clap of the French military operation "Barkhane" in Mali
Audio 04:14
French soldiers from the anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane in a street in Kidal, October 3, 2016. STRINGER / AFP
By: Norbert Navarro
3 mins
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“
Barkane had to pack up.
And faster than expected
”, launches
Liberation
, while stressing that this clap of the end in Mali does not mean the end of the fight against an “
out of control jihadist insurgency
”, as this daily formulates it.
Which finds that the withdrawal of "Barkhane" from Mali sounded like a "
funeral oration for one of the longest external operations of the Fifth Republic
".
This
farewell
from France to Mali, in what the newspaper
Les Echos
calls “
the largest war
” in the world, leaves the daily newspapers
La Croix
and
Le Parisien
in any case with a “
bitter
” taste.
France “
must rethink its mode of action in West Africa
”, preaches the first.
Not failing to mention African youth “
vibrant, eager to take their destiny into their own hands
”,
La Croix
invites France to “
be more discreet
”.
“
How not to feel a sense of waste when terrorism affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group (…) is still rampant, extending even beyond the Sahel to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea and destabilizing more than ever the states of the region?
“, asks – sorry –
Le Parisien
... which daily explains that “
the (quasi) candidate president wanted to avoid the risk of interference from the putschist colonels in the campaign, with images of anti-French demonstrations and tricolor flags burned in Mali
".
This is why the French presidency has "
neat the staging: Macron appeared flanked by African and European leaders.
A way of showing that France is not alone and is acting in consultation with its allies
”, underlines
Le Parisien
.
Especially since the “
first concerned by this radical decision, the soldiers also deny any idea of defeat
”.
Defeat, perhaps not, but "
failure
" and "
shock
" surely, believes
Le Monde
.
“
Failure for Paris and for Bamako
” first, for “
heavy military operations in Africa
” then, underlines this evening daily, deploring the loss of “
fifty three soldiers
” French, but also that of “
more than 10,200 Malians (who) have died in the violence since 2015
”.
Failure and shock
Failure of "
Barkhane
" in Mali?
Yesterday, at the Elysée Palace, Emmanuel Macron, however, "
completely
" challenged him, underlines
Le Figaro
.
However, notes this newspaper, the operation "did
not make it possible to overcome a threat posed by a few hundred jihadist fighters
".
Consequently,
Le Figaro
somehow sets the new orientation of the mission: “
forget Mali.
But continue elsewhere and differently
”.
For
L'Humanité
, on the other hand, there is no doubt that it is indeed a “
failure
”.
And even if this word "
scares Emmanuel Macron
", the French communist daily believes that this "
bankruptcy
" could "
sign the inexorable decline of Françafrique
".
In the meantime, “
our soldiers
” will be particularly willing “
alongside the satrap Ouattara in Côte d'Ivoire, states L'Huma.
Beautiful image… And another failure to come
,” predicts
L'Humanité
.
Impossible mission
By way of conclusion, just an extract from a forum published by
La Croix
and signed by a former executive of the French Development Agency.
Serge Michaïlof, since it is about him, is now an associate researcher at IRIS, the Institute of International and Strategic Relations.
And he believes that in Mali, "
our fetish for a breathless democracy has led our diplomacy to add a series of blunders to the initial error made by President Hollande of transforming Operation Serval, with clear and limited objectives, in a Barkhane operation with vague and unattainable objectives
”, analyzes Serge Michaïlof in
La Croix.
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