The handover of the last French military base in Chad and the Sahel marks a loss of influence for Paris and European interests in the region.
France has finally ended its 60-year military presence in Chad by closing its last military base there. Kosseï camp in the capital N’Djamena was also the last of its bases in the Sahel, which were themselves a legacy of France’s domination of the region as the main colonial power there. On Friday the last of nearly 1,000 French soldiers left.
Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby’s decided last November to terminate defence cooperation agreements with its former coloniser, after a tide of anti-French sentiment.
This decision was part of an historic regional trend: since 2022 with the French army withdrawing from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. The withdrawals could also continue; in recent weeks, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire have announced they want French forces to leave their countries too.
“The countries of the region are seeking to establish new links, forge new alliances and chart their own course,” explains Euronews journalist Jeremiah Fisayo Bambi.
These countries “want to guarantee their own sovereignty and be able to make their own choices, make their own decisions.”
While the military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger that came to power after a coup d’état sought a break with France, Chad does not seem to be seeking to cut all ties, with N’Djamena referring to it as matter of “sovereignty”. The tone in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire towards Paris appears identical.
This “sends a strong signal that they no longer want the presence of French troops”, stresses Nina Wilén, director of the Africa programme at the Egmont Institute.
“Afterwards, we saw that the French embassy in Mali is staying. There is still cooperation with France, so that doesn’t mean we’re cutting all ties,” the French analyst added.
The impact on the European Union
Chad’s withdrawal was a blow to the French authorities but it also means a loss of influence in West Africa for the European Union.
“I think that many European Union leaders have been hiding behind France (…) for the last ten years. France has led the biggest operation against terrorism in the Sahel, which has helped many European countries that did not want to invest to put troops on the ground themselves”, Nina Wilén said.
But Wilén says Europe is also to blame. “On the one hand, France made a mistake in how it dealt with the various countries and their leaders, and above all, in its attitude towards them. But there is also a European willingness, or more generally a European unwillingness, to invest in these countries”.
France and the EU must maintain their influence, as the departure of the French forces opens the door to other international players. All eyes are on Russia. The Russian paramilitary group Wagner, renamed Africa Corps after the death of its leader, is said to have 5,000 fighters on the African continent.
