France announced this Thursday (17) the withdrawal of its operation against jihadist groups in Mali, after nine years of presence. Paris promised to continue fighting in the Sahel region, alongside its allies.
“The political, operational and legal conditions no longer exist to effectively continue with the current military commitment to the fight against terrorism in Mali, and therefore we have decided to initiate a coordinated withdrawal,” reads a statement. The declaration, signed by France, its European allies, Canada and African partners in the Sahel and Gulf of Guinea, highlights the “will” to continue the struggle in the region, in “close coordination with neighboring countries” of Mali.
The decision raises reflections in the French press on Thursday. The departure takes place in the midst of two bitter realizations, emphasizes Le Figaro: Operations Barkhane and Takuba, the European mission also coordinated by France, were a “tactical and political failure” in their objectives.
Before the official announcement this morning, the gavel was struck at an informal meeting at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday night, at which the main international actors involved in the operations were at the table. The French military presence proved to be “impossible”, notes Figaro, explaining that the operations “did not manage to eliminate the jihadist threat” in the African country, “nor did they dissipate the growing anti-French sentiment among the Malian population”.
The daily’s editorial reflects on nearly a decade of efforts by Paris to hunt, at the behest of Bamako (Mali’s capital) in 2012, extremists loyal to groups like the Islamic State, scattered across the Sahel desert. “The longest French foreign operation since the Algerian war has reached the end of its logic”, says the text, recalling that the region “is the tomb of 53 French soldiers”.
Military coup accelerated match
There have been many complications in these more than nine years, but recently, the double coup d’état that put in power a military junta opposed to French and European operations and the presence of Russian mercenaries in Mali, allies of the new government, made the French presence in the country more undesirable than ever.
Paris will not simply leave Bamako overnight, like the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, underlines Figaro. Two months before the French presidential elections, Emmanuel Macron’s plan is to reduce the military presence by half, to about 2,500 men, who will be redirected to the borders with Niger, Burkina Faso, to avoid the dispersion of terrorists towards South. But the big risk is that the alliance of power in Mali with the extremists will turn the country into an “Islamist black hole”, warns Figaro.
In a press conference this morning, Macron “completely” rejected the idea that the military mission had failed and said that if France had not acted, the African country would have collapsed. “What would have happened in 2013 if France had not decided to intervene? There would have certainly been a collapse of the Malian state,” Macron declared.
Relatives of dead soldiers
Le Parisien went to meet the relatives of the French soldiers who died in combat over the years. Alexandre Protin’s father, for example, still does not accept the loss of his son, which took place two years ago. Dominique Protin says he understands the decision of Paris, but regrets that French diplomacy has not been able to dialogue with all the parties involved, for an effective solution to the problem.
Lucas Boiteux, 24, was 15 when he lost his father, the first French soldier to be killed in Operation Barkhane. The young man says that since then, not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about his father. He prefers not to comment on the decision to withdraw, but says he has resentments towards the former president at the time, François Hollande. Lucas accuses the socialist of having “abandoned” the family members of the military engaged in the operation.
