France has started 2025 with a further reduction in its military presence in its former African colonies, sparking fresh tensions with controversial comments by French President Emmanuel Macron this week.
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 varied – from rising anti-French sentiment to calls for greater sovereignty and strengthening ties with other foreign powers. But the effect is the same.
“France’s policy in Africa has clearly collapsed,” said Thierry Vercollon, a researcher at the Africa Center of the French Institute for International Relations. “The withdrawal of French troops and basically the end of the French military presence in Africa symbolizes that decline.”
French-African relations have not improved in recent times. On Monday, Macron suggested that some Sahel countries had forgotten to thank French troops for leading a decade-long war against Islamist rebels.
This was sharply criticized by the leaders of Chad and Senegal. French officials say Macron’s comments were taken out of context.
Jean-Pierre Moulony, director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs think tank, said he believed France needed to focus less on immediate results and instead focus on long-term relations with Francophone African countries. Needed
France should think more about sharing Africa’s security, development and future and less about adopting a big brother attitude, he said.
Macron’s government last year announced plans 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. For example, its two largest trading partners are Nigeria and South Africa.
But analyst Vircolon estimates that France’s long-term influence in Africa will remain limited.
“There is very little the French government can do and it is playing on the side of Russia and other countries that are not Western,” he said.
He said he believed France’s strategic priorities would shift toward potential conflicts in Europe.
