Without France’s military actions in the Sahel, according to French President Emmanuel Macroh, “Mali would probably no longer exist…I doubt Niger would still exist, and there would also be Burkina Faso.
According to Macron, Operations Serval and Barkhane, carried out by the former colonial authority in the middle of the 2000s, were interventions.
NAN claims that when Mali’s military authorities severed connections with the former colonial state, French troops were sent from Mali to Niger.
He said that the operations were carried out “at the request of African states” and that they were “successful” at a time when his policy is under fire due to the loss of his sole surviving partner, Niger, and growing anti-African sentiment.
In spite of the fact that this is “tragic for the states concerned,” he continued, France could no longer be involved in these operations “when there is a coup d’état, and the new regimes’ priority is not to fight terrorism.”
In the interview, Macron defended the administration’s partnership-driven approach to policy in the Sahel rather than a security-first approach.
Despite General Abdurahman Tchiani, the leader of the coup, declaring that all military agreements between France and Niger are cancelled, more than a thousand French troops are still present at a base there.
