In the beginning there was a drowsy French president who was shaken awake by a beadle in tails after a call for help from the Malian president.

The deployment of the French army in Mali was decided on the night of January 11th, 2013 in the Elysée Palace, as François Hollande's biographers recorded for posterity in their book "A President Shouldn't Talk Like This".

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Nine years later, the Elysée Palace is again the scene of a far-reaching decision.

With champagne, fine wine and specialties from top chef Fabrice Desvignes, Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday began the farewell to the largest foreign assignment since the end of the Algerian war.

Unlike his predecessor, the President does not want to be suspected of making decisions on his own.

Shortly before the EU-Africa summit this Thursday, the EU leaders and all countries that France had persuaded to contribute militarily to Mali's stabilization were invited.

The heads of state and government of Italy, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, Romania, Portugal and Sweden accepted.

The experiment by the European special forces unit Takuba is to be ended, but relaunched "in a different form", according to the Elysée.

The federal government avoided the "open" debate that Macron had wanted by absenteeism.

"Without France's commitment in Mali, Mali would no longer exist"

Not much is left of the idea of ​​providing help for military self-help, as the guest list for the G5 Sahel intervention force shows.

Mali and Burkina Faso are no longer security partners following the coups.

The situation in Chad is also confusing, but head of state Mahamat Déby was allowed to attend anyway.

In Paris they are hoping for the heads of state of Niger and Mauritania and want to involve old partners such as the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Benin in the fight against terrorism.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tried hard to make France's strategic withdrawal easier than it is.

"Without France's commitment in Mali, Mali would no longer exist," Borrell said on French radio.

"The Barkhane anti-terrorist operation did not fail," emphasized the EU foreign policy chief.

Behind the scenes, however, diplomats tell how little France and the European allies are up to the Russian game for power and influence in Africa.

Even before the military coup, emissaries from the Wagner Group were out and about in the resource-rich areas of the country – like everywhere else in Africa.

On June 26, 2019, the Malian government signed an agreement on far-reaching security cooperation in Moscow.

The Kremlin agreed to train Malian soldiers as they did during the Cold War and to send anti-terrorist specialists.

In 2013, Moscow sold 3,000 Kalashnikov rifles to the Malian army.

In 2016, Russia donated two military helicopters to the heavily indebted country.

In October 2021, two more attack helicopters were delivered to Bamako.