The announcement that Emmanuel Macron should make is the end of an operation that had started in 2013. It is also the term of a painful process of withdrawal from Mali, where the military were mainly deployed.
by Elise Vincent
After almost ten years of existence, the “Barkhane” operation in the Sahel is officially completed. It is in any case, according to the Elysée, which should formally announce the head of state Emmanuel Macron, Wednesday November 9, during a displacement planned on the basis of Toulon’s naval, where he must indulge in A vast exercise of military doctrine, by presenting a new “strategic national review” (RNS).
This announcement is the end of an operation that had started in January 2013 in Mali in January 2013 with the launch of “Serval”, quickly renamed “Barkhane”, in August 2014. It is also the term of a pain Mali withdrawal process, where the French soldiers were mainly deployed. He was initiated in mid-2021 and the last French soldiers from “Barkhane” left the country in mid-August.
If the dismantling of the French bases started because of political instability in Bamako – two coups in less than twelve months – it accelerated from the end of 2021 due to the collaboration more In addition active of the Malian regime with the paramilitary group Wagner, close to Russian power. This situation served as a way out of the executive, faced with the increasingly visible helplessness in the field of its fight against terrorism.
bilateral agreements
This end of the “Barkhane” operation, which counted up to 5,100 men – excluding special forces – does not mark the complete departure of the French soldiers in the Sahel. Some 3,000 soldiers are still deployed in Chad and especially in Niger, where France has recentralized a good part of its military means. But these men will no longer formally be as part of an “external operation” (OPEX), said the Elysée, Tuesday.
A difference in mandate and legal conditions for a relatively new exercise for the French soldiers, except those who were so far led to cooperation, often limited to the training of local security forces. Their actions will now be mainly supervised by the bilateral agreements signed with host countries, generally SOFA type (“Forces status agreement”).
This development should not fail to bring its share of questions. The actions of French soldiers in Africa will be able to go to the future of “training” to “support” – to treat or evacuate the wounded in combat, or even logistical aid – to “support”, According to the Elysée. That is to say, potentially, up to combat in combat or “fire support” (air strike for example), as is currently the case in Niger or Burkina Faso.
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