In a forum published Sunday in the JDD, the boss of France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon urges the government to "quickly bring home" the French forces deployed in the Sahel. With MP Bastien Lachaud, they point to a six-year war that did not improve the situation on the ground.

The boss of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, judges "essential to define the means" to "bring home quickly" French forces deployed in the Sahel, in a forum published Sunday in the JDD, on the eve of the national tribute to 13 soldiers killed in Mali. In this text, co-signed with the deputy Bastien Lachaud, the leader of the rebels recognizes however that "it is impossible to immediately withdraw the French forces: our defense agreements forbid us". But he asks to "work on a new attitude by identifying the impasses" of the current situation in the Sahel.

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"Six years ago we are at war," say the two LFI MPs. "We have lost 44 lives, stationed 4,500 soldiers and their equipment, and Parliament has not decided or debated it once, why are we there, until when?" -they. "Is the situation better (...) Are the Malians more likely than before to decide their own destiny, are the French better appreciated, and the answer is no. all the actors on the spot recognize it, the researchers too, and some talk of a 'disaster', "they still say.

A national tribute for the soldiers

The two parliamentarians claim "another relationship with the peoples of Africa", denouncing the "support" of France to Malian President "puppet" Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Thirteen French soldiers of the Barkhane force died last Monday in Mali in the collision of two helicopters during a combat operation against jihadists, in an alarming security context in the Sahel. This is the heaviest human toll suffered by French soldiers since the beginning of their deployment in the Sahel in 2013.

Emmanuel Macron will preside over Monday afternoon at the Invalides, in the presence of Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, a national tribute open to the public in honor of these thirteen soldiers who died accidentally.