Tag Archives: Mali

More French Troops in the Sahel

Posted on by
Reply

Tony Chafer is Professor of French and African Studies at the University of Portsmouth

Read more on France’s growing problems in the Sahel

 

On Sunday France announced it was increasing its military presence in the Sahel by adding a further 600 troops to its 4,500-strong operation in Mali and four other countries in the region. This is in addition to the  220 extra troops for the region that Macron announced at a G5 Sahel summit which he hosted in Pau last month. The announcement came as France tries to contain a rise in violence that has increased insecurity across the region.

With this announcement France is seeking to underline its regional commitment, having lost 13 of its own troops in a helicopter collision last November.

Part of the reason for the increase is no doubt to keep up pressure on France’s  European allies to mobilise troops and resources in support of the French mission in the Sahel, Operation Barkhane. Paris is also putting pressure on the US not to draw down its military presence in the region, which it has indicated it wishes to do. Defence minister Florence Parly returned last week from a visit to the US where she asked for Washington’s support in “burden sharing” in the Sahel.

Macron is also under pressure from senior military figures, who are calling for a change of strategy and increased resources if Operation Barkhane is to succeed. His own Chief of Staff, General Francois Lecointre, told a parliamentary committee last November that current troop levels were inadequate for such a large expanse of territory.

France faces growing problems in the Sahel

Posted on by
Reply

Tony Chafer is Professor of French and African Studies at the University of Portsmouth

 

 

 

 

In recent months France has faced growing hostility to its military presence in the western Sahel. There have been demonstrations, most recently in Bamako on 10 January, when the French flag was burned in the city’s main square and demonstrators called for the French forces and all foreign forces on Malian soil to leave. In response, President Macron called the presidents of the G5 Sahel countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad) to a meeting in Pau this Monday 13 January, at which he hoped they would disavow such anti-French demonstrations. He even hinted that, if they did not, he could withdraw the 4,500 soldiers of France’s Operation Barkhane. No one expected him to follow through on this threat.

In the event, Macron and the presidents of the G5 Sahel countries recommitted themselves to the counter-terrorism efforts in the western Sahel and agreed to form a military coalition under joint command to focus their counter-insurgency efforts. However, President Macron knows that France is losing the battle against violent extremism in the region and at the NATO summit in November last year appealed to other countries to step up and support French efforts. This appeal has fallen on deaf ears. The US is contemplating reducing its military presence and EU partners do not necessarily share France’s analysis that insecurity in the Sahel represents a threat to European security. The impasse led one French specialist on the Sahel, Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, to suggest recently that the only way to unblock the situation was for France to announce a timetable for withdrawal of French troops.