The last French soldiers of the Barkhane special force left Mali on Monday after nine years fighting Islamic fundamentalism in the country, the General Staff of the French Armed Forces announced.
Today at 1:00 p.m. [12h00 em Lisboa]the last detachment of the Barkhane force present on Malian soil has crossed the border between Mali and Niger,” the General Staff said in a statement.
After nine years of presence in Mali, the Barkhane force was reorganized to leave the country “in less than six months”.
This great military logistical challenge was fulfilled, in good order and security, as well as with total transparency and in coordination with the partners”, says the note.
In another statement, the French Presidency guaranteed that the country “remains involved in the Sahel”, as well as “in the Gulf of Guinea and in the Lake Chad region, with all partners committed to stability and the fight against terrorism” .
After creating Operation Barkane in 2014 to help combat Islamic fundamentalism in Mali, France announced on February 17 the decision to reorganize the device “outside Malian territory” upon concluding that the “The political and operational conditions were not met” to remain in the countrythe General Staff recalled this Monday.
The military presence in the Sahel will be cut in half by the end of the year, to 2,500 soldiers.
Paris has been saying for months that it has not abandoned the fight against Islamic extremism and that it is discussing with the countries of the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea the preparation of new forms of intervention.
French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that the military presence in Africa will be “reconsidered by autumn.”
Operation Barkhane was forced out of Mali following disagreements with the ruling military junta in Bamako since 2020.
In total, France withdrew some 4,000 containers and a thousand vehicles, including hundreds of armored vehicles, from Mali, while the Sahel is experiencing an outbreak of violence that the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Bamako’s new ally, is struggling to contain.
More than 2,000 civilians have been killed in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso since the beginning of the year, more than the 2,021 deaths recorded in all of 2021, according to calculations by Agence France-Presse based on data from the non-governmental organization Acceded. .
In nine years of presence in the Sahel, the French army lost 59 soldiers.
The military junta in power in Bamako since 2020 ended military cooperation with France and opted to turn to Russia, through the private Wagner mercenary company.
Source: Observadora
