France starts 2025 with a further drawdown of its military presence in its former African colonies, and fresh tensions ignited this week with controversial remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Chad, Senegal and now Ivory Coast have followed Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in asking France to withdraw its troops from their soil. The reasons vary — from growing anti-French sentiment to calls for greater sovereignty and strengthening ties with other foreign powers. But the impact is the same.
“There is a clear collapse of French policy in Africa,” said Thierry Vircoulon, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations’ Africa Center. “The withdrawal of the French troops and basically the end of the French military presence in Africa is a symbol of that collapse.”
French-African relations haven’t improved in recent days. On Monday, Macron suggested some Sahel countries had forgotten to thank French troops for spearheading a decadelong fight against Islamist insurgencies.
That drew sharp criticism from leaders in Chad and Senegal. French authorities say Macron’s remarks were taken out of context.
Jean-Pierre Maulny, deputy director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs think tank, said he believes France needs to be less focused on the immediate fallout and instead concentrate on longer-term ties with francophone African countries.
France should think more about development and sharing the future of Africa’s security, he said, and less about adopting a big brother attitude.
Macron’s government announced plans last year to reduce its military presence on the continent — where it also has troops in Gabon and Djibouti — and make it more responsive to countries’ demands.
France has also expanded ties beyond francophone Africa. Its two biggest trading partners, for example, are Nigeria and South Africa.
But analyst Vircoulon predicts France’s long-term influence in Africa will remain limited, at best.
“There’s very little that the French government can do, and it’s playing in favor of Russia and other countries that are not Western,” he said.
He said he believes France’s strategic priorities will shift to potential conflicts in Europe.
