French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to "rethink all our military situations on the African continent", calling on his ministers and army chiefs to act on it.
Macron made the comments on Wednesday as he addressed French forces ahead of the Bastille Day parade in the capital, Paris.
French officials traveled to Niger last Friday to redraw the country's strategy to combat Islamist armed movements in the Sahel, with thousands of French soldiers completing the withdrawal from Mali and growing fears of a threat to West African countries.
Military coups in Mali, Chad, and Burkina Faso weakened France's alliances in those countries, and further limited French influence.
On June 1, France announced the end of the deployment of the "Takuba" force in Mali, which includes European forces.
It is noteworthy that France intervened militarily in Mali starting on January 11, 2013 in response to a request from the Malian government at the time to confront the encroachment of armed Islamist movements and Tuareg rebels on Bamako, the country's capital and major city.
In 2014, France officially launched Operation Barkhane, which was to become its longest foreign operation since the end of the Algerian war in 1962, with the participation of about 5,500 soldiers who were deployed in Mali, Niger and Chad, in partnership with the five Sahel-Saharan countries (Mauritania). , Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad).
According to data published by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces in December 2021, the "Barkhane" mission owns 3 military bases in northern Mali.
The main base is located in Gao and is equipped with attack helicopters, units called "GTD" or "Desert Battle Groups", in addition to this, there are heavy armored vehicles and transport logistics equipment.
Paris is counting on its old and military presence in the West African coasts;
Where it also has bases outside Mali, including the French military base in Côte d'Ivoire, which includes 900 soldiers, contains a "large operational and logistical" strategic infrastructure and is considered a "reservoir for rapid deployment forces in the event of a crisis in the sub-region," according to the French Ministry of Armies. 7 months ago.
In Gabon, we find a detachment of 350 soldiers residing in the de Gaulle camp near Libreville airport, made up of a tank for "pre-positioned forces".
In Senegal, 350 French soldiers are deployed in Occam and the military port of Dakar, with an airstrip.
In the Sahel there is also a "Mission Saber" command post near Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso.
Since 2009, between 350 and 400 special forces soldiers have been deployed, who were behind the missions to liquidate most of the "jihadist" leaders who were eliminated in recent years.