French forces in the Sahel will switch operating mode after they leave Mali, acting more “in support” of local forces rather than substituting for them, according to their commander.
After nearly a decade fighting militants in Mali, France is pulling its troops out of the country after falling out with its military junta.
President Emmanuel Macron announced the withdrawal in February, saying Operation Barkhane would continue elsewhere in the Sahel but in a smaller and reconfigured form.
In an interview Barkhane commander General Laurent Michon said the force now had less than 2,000 men left in Mali adding that the pullout was on track for completion “by the end of summer, as the president has requested.
Micho said , around 2,500 French troops will remain in the Sahel when the operation is over, “but this depends above all on the wishes of the African states.”
These operations will be “determined more strictly by requests from the African countries, and will take the form of ‘in support of’ and not ‘in replacement for'” the local military, he said.
Illustrating the closer cooperation, Michon said that last year a French unit on the Mali-Niger border was placed under the command of a Nigerien general in charge of the area.
And in March, France set up a “partnership HQ” in the Niger capital Niamey, “with the goal of working with African officers embedded” with Barkhane.
The general said as for the pullout, France has already left its bases in Gossi and Menaka in central Mali and is currently disengaging from a camp in Gao,
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