Soldiers from Operation Barkhane, in Gossi in northern Mali on April 21, 2019. -

Laurence Geai

The year 2021 will mark a turning point in French military strategy in West Africa.

France is preparing to review the strength of its 5,100 soldiers in the Sahel, where the anti-jihadist force Barkhane is deployed, Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday during his wishes to the armies in Brest.

"The results obtained by our forces in the Sahel, combined with the greater intervention of our European partners, will allow us to adjust our military effort" in the region, declared the Head of State, without specifying the volume or calendar.

It thus confirms its intention to downsize in the area, where France has been carrying out its biggest foreign operation since 2013.

"Temporary" reinforcements

In January 2020, at the Pau summit, the French president and his G5 Sahel counterparts (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad) decided to step up the anti-jihadist fight to stem a spiral of violence.

Emmanuel Macron then sent 600 men to reinforce this region as large as Europe.

"The temporary reinforcements that I have decided to deploy have enabled the Barkhane force to put in great difficulty the terrorist groups which find themselves cornered, reduced to cowardly procedures, which have reached our forces", bereaved by the recent death of 5 French soldiers in Mali, "but who, I would remind you, first and foremost strike civilians, without discrimination".

To lighten its presence, France is relying heavily on the deployment of elite European units within the new Takuba force, responsible for accompanying the Malian army in combat.

Created at the initiative of Paris, this grouping of special forces which today brings together French, Estonians and Czechs, is the "sign of a growing awareness of the Sahelian issues which are crucial for all of Europe", claim Emmanuel Macron.

France must formalize this first wave of withdrawal at a forthcoming summit with the G5 Sahel countries, in February in N'Djamena in Chad.

Public opinion no longer supports the operation

Beyond the reminder of the 600 reinforcements sent in January 2020, the Elysee is tempted to further reduce the workforce of Barkhane by the presidential election of 2022. In fact, impatience is mounting in France in the face of this long commitment and costly, which has seen 50 soldiers lose their lives and hardly be followed by political effects on the ground.

According to a poll published in early January, half of the French (51%) no longer support this intervention in Mali.

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  • Army

  • Jihadism

  • Sahel

  • World

  • Emmanuel Macron

  • Mali

  • West Africa