France and its allies in a European force will withdraw their troops from Mali after almost a decade, President Emmanuel Macron has announced.
The troops have been involved in the fight against Islamist militants in the country since 2013.
Mr Macron said the decision to leave followed a breakdown in diplomatic relations, amid growing hostility from Mali’s governing military junta.
The forces will be re-deployed elsewhere in Africa’s Sahel region.
“We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de-facto authorities whose strategy and hidden aims we do not share”, Mr Macron told a news conference in Paris on Thursday.
He refuted claims that the withdrawal was an acceptance of failure and insisted that France remains committed to combating Islamist insurgencies in the region. He added that Niger had agreed to host some of the withdrawing forces.
The planned withdrawal, which is expected to happen over a four- to six-month period, was agreed at a meeting of European and African leaders at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday night.
In a statement released on Thursday morning, countries involved in the French-led Tabuka Task Force agreed to set out plans on how to remain actively involved in the region, most notably in Niger and the Gulf of Guinea countries, by June 2022.
Almost 5,000 French troops are deployed in the Sahel region to combat Islamist insurgencies as part of Operation Barkhane, with around 2,400 of those located at three bases in northern Mali.
But relations between France and Mali, which is one of the world’s poorest nations, have deteriorated since the army seized power in coup August 2020.
And tensions increased further last month when the junta reneged on an agreement to arrange elections in February and vowed to hold power until 2025, ultimately leading to the expulsion of the French ambassador.
In December, more than a dozen Western nations also condemned the deployment of mercenaries from the Russia-based Wagner group to Mali.
The group has been involved in several major conflicts, including in Syria, Mozambique, Sudan and the Central African Republic. A BBC investigation found links to war crimes in Libya.
Mr Macron warned on Thursday that the group had “essentially come to secure their economic interests and the junta itself”.
BBC
