Special to WorldTribune.com

By John J. Metzler, July 31, 2025

PARIS — It’s a turning of the page in Franco/African diplomatic relations. Now for the first time since the decolonization of the French colonies in the early 1960’s, there will be no formal French military bases on the African continent.

Following decolonization, former French President Charles de Gaulle nurtured close military ties, not to mention cultural and commercial links, with many of its former territories.

Strategic but discreet defense footholds remained in key countries such as Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon and others in a low-key but significant security network between France and the newly independent governments. Such facilities allowed France alone a key military access on the African continent, something which Britain simply did not have.

Yet in recent years the formerly cosy ties have changed as a wave of Islamic fundamentalism, a spate of coup d’Etats in West and Central Africa regimes and growing covert Russian and Chinese influence have become a dangerous new norm. France soon became the political bete noire in many of its former colonies and the Macron government deemed it was time to leave.

Formerly close relationships in places like Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali have largely disappeared.

Then even close ties with the current government in Senegal saw a call for a formal end to the French military presence which was strong even during WWII. France closed its Senegalese bases, including a key airfield, pulling out 350 troops.

Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye stated, “Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country, and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases,” he said last year, while maintaining that “France remains an important partner for Senegal.”

The French withdrawal comes as the Sahel region faces a widening Islamic jihadist conflict across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Just a decade ago France mounted a major anti-jihadi operation in Mali, Operation Barkhane, but was forced to phase-down as the local government in Bamako, Mali began its tilt towards Moscow.

According to the French Ministry of Defense, the former anti-terrorist mission “spanned over five countries in the Sahel region of North Africa, starting at the beginning of August 2014… with their main base located in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, the French forces actively operated in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Niger.”

Earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron chided, “that Sahel states ‘forgot’ to thank France for its role, amid the continuing withdrawal of French troops from West African countries. He added, no Sahel state would be a sovereign nation without France’s intervention that prevented them from falling under the control of militants.

Diplomatic analyst Vincent Hervouet adds in the French weekly JD News, “The painful truth is that France does not have the resources to make itself heard.”

Between 1964 and 2012, France was able to intervene militarily on up to 30 occasions, supporting friendly governments and thwarting rebellions and potential coup d’Etats. That age has past.

In January this year Paris returned its longtime base in Chad in the unrest plagued Sahel region, the next month France also pulled out of its remaining base in Côte d’Ivoire, ending decades of French presence at the site. Various African states have ousted over 4,300 French soldiers in the past few years. Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali moreover have cut ties with France and turned to Russia for help in fighting the Sahel’s decade-long unrest. Russian mercenaries now serve in
some of these Sahel states offering security services to local regimes.

The real advantage of these French bases rested with the logistical objectives of forward placement of prepositioned military forces, humanitarian airlift capacity of supplies, intelligence gathering as well as assistance and training for local security forces.

Despite the dramatic developments, some 1,500 French forces will remain in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, home to a permanent French military base. The Djibouti facility at the strategic southern end of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden is shared with 4,000 American and separately, since 2017 over 2,000 Chinese forces. Beijing’s overt mission here is to facilitate anti-piracy operations.

Despite the military pullouts, France maintains vigorous cultural and linguistic ties with its former colonies via the Francophone organization.

Though there’s been little public discussion and comment on the dramatic withdrawals from Africa, there’s disquiet in the French military and intelligence community over the undeniable losses of forward operating bases and security assets on the African continent.

This lamentable shift by the French government creates an undeniable military vacuum on the African continent; not something the United States is willing to fill.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). [See pre-2011 Archives]

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