After their expulsion from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and their departure from Chad and Senegal announced, French troops will also have to withdraw from the Ivory Coast. This was announced in his New Year’s Eve speech by Alassane Ouattara, Ivorian president, who indicated that it is a “concerted and organized” withdrawal that will begin this January. Meanwhile, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, president of Senegal, also assured in his last speech of the year that the departure of French troops would be effective in 2025. In this way, the French military presence completely vanishes from West Africa and is only maintained in two countries on the continent, Gabon and Djibouti.
“We can feel proud of our Army, whose modernization is already effective,” Ouattara said this Tuesday, “in that context we have decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of the French Forces from the Ivory Coast. The base of the 43rd Marine Battalion of Port-Bouët will be returned to the Armed Forces of Côte d’Ivoire from this month of January 2025.” This base was until now the nerve center of French military interventions in West Africa, especially in its fight against jihadism, and houses around 600 soldiers. The French Ministry of Defense already anticipated a reduction in its troops to reach one hundred.
Unlike his African neighbors, Alassane Ouattara’s decision comes in full coordination with the withdrawal plan announced by France in 2024. However, his solemn announcement in an official speech allows the Ivorian president to score the goal before public opinion at just ten months of a key presidential election for the future of this country. Despite having been in office for three terms, Ouattara himself has not yet revealed whether he will be a candidate for said elections. “The elections will be calm, transparent and democratic,” he simply said in his New Year’s Eve speech.
In Dakar, the Senegalese Faye chose the same format to set a date for the French withdrawal from its territory, which he announced a month ago. “I have ordered the Minister of Defense to propose a new doctrine of cooperation in defense and security that implies, among other consequences, the end of all foreign military presence in Senegal from 2025,” said Faye. This country currently hosts some 350 French soldiers, mostly dedicated to training the armies of the region, according to the French Ministry of Defense.
For their part, French troops have already begun their withdrawal from Chad after the breakdown of the military cooperation agreement by N’Djamena a month ago. On December 26, 30 French soldiers handed over management of a military base in Faya-Largeau, in the north of the country, to the Chadian Army and headed towards the capital. The next military camp that will be returned to the Chadian Army will be Abeche and finally the Kossei base next to the airport. The Chadian authorities demanded that this withdrawal be effective before January 31, 2025.
With the withdrawal of Senegal, Chad and the Ivory Coast later this year, Paris will only have a military presence left in two African countries: some 350 troops in Gabon and another 1,500 in Djibouti. For France, the latter is essential as it is a strategic logistical and operational platform that overlooks a key maritime route in world trade and from where it is possible to intervene in a short time not only in Africa, but above all in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. The French military presence is not in question in Djibouti, which also hosts military bases from the United States, China, Japan and Italy.
Just five years ago, France had some 10,000 soldiers deployed on the continent, half of them in Operation Barkhane to combat jihadism in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. However, the failure itself to combat this threat, the growing wave of sovereignty sweeping the region, the rise to power of military junta in these three countries through coups d’état and their rapprochement with Russia, with the arrival of mercenaries and instructors, precipitated the expulsion of the last French soldiers in the Sahel and the end of French and European operations in the region.
