Mali: the French army leaves the Ménaka military base

Soldiers undergoing training at the Ménaka base, in northeastern Mali, in a photo published on June 13, 2022. © AFP PHOTO / General Staff of the Armed Forces

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The French army left Monday, June 13 in the morning the military base of Ménaka, in the north-east of Mali.

The keys to the camp have officially been handed over to the Malian Armed Forces, in a transfer that is the penultimate step in the full withdrawal of the Barkhane force from Mali.

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850 soldiers occupied the Ménaka camp.

Alongside Barkhane's soldiers were the men of

, including Czechs, Estonians and Swedes.

Engaged in an operational military partnership with the Malian armed forces, this embryo of European special forces had succeeded in hindering the threat posed by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.

The jihadist group, declared

, was then no longer able to establish a territorial caliphate in Mali's Liptako.

And in August 2021, Abou Wallid Al Sahraoui, the emir of the group, was neutralized.

This Monday, June 13, the last convoy, made up of a hundred French soldiers, therefore left Ménaka.

Direction the base of Gao, which in turn will be returned at the end of the summer, the last stage of the rearticulation of the Barkhane force out of Mali.

In recent months, against a backdrop of French redeployment, the security situation in the three-border region has deteriorated.

The EIGS is once again threatening, and a jihadist attack could

, the UN envoy said on Monday.

This transfer of Ménaka is the penultimate stage of the departure of the Barkhane force from Mali, an important stage, underlines General Pascal Ianni, spokesman for the general staff of the French armies.

General Pascal Ianni, spokesman for the general staff of the French armies: the transfer of Ménaka "marks the departure of the French forces from the Malian Liptako"

Frank Alexander

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