PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce the withdrawal of French troops from Mali and a rethink of his country’s military presence in the Sahel region ahead of an EU-Africa summit in Brussels.
Macron will convene EU leaders, heads of state from Sahel countries and countries active in the region for dinner on Wednesday evening at the Elysée Palace in Paris, where they will discuss military presence in the area and the possible end of Operation Barkhane — a French-led counter-insurgency operation centered on Mali.
But there is little doubt as to the outcome of the meeting. According to Reuters, a draft document distributed to countries involved in Mali says that France and its allies have “decided to commence the coordinated withdrawal of their military resources from Malian territory.” The AFP reported that a pullout from Mali would be announced either Wednesday or Thursday.
While saying that no official decision has formally been taken, an Elysée official stressed Tuesday that there is a growing consensus among France and its partners that anti-terrorist missions in Mali cannot continue under the current conditions.
“It seems very difficult to maintain a commitment in the fight against terrorism” in Mali, the official said, referring to the Barkhane operation and pointing to “a growing skepticism” among countries that intervened alongside France in Mali. “Today, our partners are inclined to consider that the conditions for the success of our missions in Mali are no longer met,” the official noted.
A decision could be announced after Wednesday’s dinner, the Elysée official said.
Earlier this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian hinted that conditions were no longer in place for the French operations to continue.
The decision to withdraw from Mali would bring to an end a nine-year-long French military operation in the country and mark a major setback in Paris’ long-term efforts to fight terrorist groups in the region.
French presence in the Sahel — approximatively 3,500 soldiers in Mali and more than 4,000 in the wider region — dates back to 2013, when then-President François Hollande decided to deploy troops first in Mali, then in the broader Sahel region including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger to fight jihadist terrorism.
Support for that mission gradually faded. Some 53 French soldiers have been killed in the Sahel, including 48 in Mali since the beginning of the operation, and French troops are now confronted with mercenary soldiers from Russia’s Wagner Group.
The situation escalated in recent weeks when the government expelled the French ambassador; thousands took to the streets of Bamako to celebrate that move and protest against the French presence there.
Mali’s military junta also went back on previous commitments to hold elections and restore civilian rule following a coup in August 2020 against elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
At Wednesday’s dinner, Chad, Mauritania and Niger will represent the Sahel region while Mali and Burkina Faso have not been invited as the two countries have been suspended from the African Union and other international formats, the Elysée said. Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and the African Union, represented by Senegalese President Macky Sall, will also participate.
Macron will be joined for dinner by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as well as heads of state or representatives from Italy, Germany, Spain, the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia.
Despite being widely expected, the decision to leave Mali would come right before a pivotal moment for EU-Africa relations — a long-awaited summit between the EU and the African Union in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
Macron put diplomatic efforts with the African continent high on his foreign policy agenda.
Last spring he invited African heads of state to Paris for a summit on financing their economies, in October he organized a France-Africa summit in Montpellier, and in November he gathered dozens of African leaders at the Paris Peace Forum.
This article was updated to add Slovakia to the list of those attending dinner with Macron.