The French army handed back its last base in the Sahel to the Chadian army on Thursday, the military headquarters of both countries have confirmed following a strictly military ceremony.
It is done, France no longer has a military presence in the Sahel. The French army handed back its last base to the Chadian army on Thursday 30 January, the military headquarters of both countries have announced.
« The handover of the Sergeant Adji Kosseï base in N'Djamena definitively brings to an end the French presence in Chad, in accordance with the wishes of the highest authorities »from N'Djamena, the Chadian army headquarters stated in a press release published on the eve of an official ceremony scheduled for Friday marking this departure, quietly and without fanfare.
« The Kosseï camp was handed back to the Chadian army today (Thursday) », the spokesperson for the French armed forces staff, Colonel Guillaume Vernet, indicated in Paris in a brief press release.
Personnel and combat equipment have been permanently transferred to France; only containers remain on site, which will themselves be repatriated by land and sea by private service providers, according to the same source.
Chad was France's last remaining stronghold in the Sahel, where Paris had counted up to more than 5,000 soldiers as part of the anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane, which was brought to an end in late November 2022.
Since then, four other former French colonies—Niger, Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso—have ordered Paris to withdraw its military personnel from their territories, where they had historically been stationed, in order to draw closer to Moscow.
Yet historic defence agreements, which have become «obsolete», according to N'Djamena
Chad, where a thousand troops were still stationed, had announced in late November its surprise decision to in turn terminate its military agreements with France. The departure of French fighter jets on December 10 was followed by the handover of the bases in Faya, in the desert northeast, on December 26, and then that of Abéché on January 11.
During the handover of Abéché, the Chadian authorities had announced that 31 January, an «imperative, irreversible and non-negotiable» date, would mark «the definitive departure of French forces».
« The three bases of the French elements in Chad have all been handed back to the Chadian National Army, with the very last one today, 30 January 2025. », stated the Chadian press release.
According to Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, in power since 2021, cooperation agreements with France had become «completely obsolete» in the face of «the political and geostrategic realities of our time».
For France, even more than the Sahel, Africa is finished. Senegal, a historic friendly nation of France, is also negotiating the departure of French troops by the end of 2025. French military numbers are simultaneously decreasing in Ivory Coast and Gabon, in accordance with a restructuring plan for the French presence in West and Central Africa.
Further east, the French military base in Djibouti, which is home to 1,500 service personnel, is not affected by this historic downsizing, as Paris wants to turn it into a «projection hub for missions» in Africa, following the forced withdrawal of French forces from the Sahel. A projection hub? Read into that what you will.
«Diplomacy is the art of making cracked panes of glass last indefinitely!»
Charles De Gaulle
General, Statesman, Politician, Serviceman, President (1890 – 1970)
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