France lost one of its staunchest military allies in the volatile Sahel region of Africa this week as Chad ended its longstanding defense partnership with the country, the latest blow to French efforts to maintain sway on the continent it once colonized.
France has some 1,000 troops in the Chad who will likely now have to leave. Analysts suggested that could further open the door to influence of the Russian military, already present in Chad’s neighbors.
The surprise decision was announced late Thursday by Chad’s foreign minister, Abderaman Koulamallah. “It is time for Chad to assert its sovereignty,” he said in a statement, calling the decision “a historic turning point.”
The move appeared to have surprised the French government, which did not react by Friday evening, nor did it immediately respond to a request for comment.
Following the recent ejection of French troops and personnel from other former African colonies plagued by Islamist insurgencies — Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso — the decision by Chad ends what remained of France’s military influence in the troubled stretch of countries below the Sahara known as the Sahel.
Russian paramilitary forces of the Wagner Group — now controlled by the Russian defense ministry — are present in varying degrees in these countries as well as in Chad’s neighbor, the Central African Republic.
In a further shock for France, Senegal’s president told the news agency Agence France-Presse on Thursday that he, too, wants French troops to leave.
But the end of France’s partnership with Chad, long the region’s most effective military power because of the quality of its troops, is the harshest blow. The French military has intervened there more often, and more decisively, than in any other African country, propping up regime after regime and even bombing rebels in 2019 to keep Chad’s longtime ruler Idriss Déby in power.
Chad’s battle-hardened troops were indispensable in France’s crushing of the Islamist insurgency in Mali in 2013. French troops helped install the dictator Hissène Habré in 1982, then helped overthrow him in favor of Mr. Déby in 1990. French Mirage jets take off regularly on training missions from a military base in the capital, N’Djamena.
French President Emmanuel Macron was the only Western leader to attend the funeral of Mr. Déby, killed fighting rebels in April 2021. Mr. Macron’s presence was seen as a kind of anointing for Mr. Déby’s son Mahamat, the current ruler. “France will never allow the stability and integrity of Chad to be called into question,” Mr. Macron said at the time.
But like other leaders in the region, the younger Mr. Déby is casting about for new partners, including Russia. Shunning the French plays well with the youthful electorate in France’s former colonies. In January, Mr. Déby paid a visit to Moscow and was seen giving a vigorous handshake to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“Those who don’t respect us, get out!” Mr. Déby yelled during a rally in May, a message clearly aimed at the French.
Wagner Group communications specialists were in N’Djamena recently during Mr. Deby’s successful presidential campaign, said Charles Bouëssel, a Chad analyst with the International Crisis Group.
“This announcement has been an enormous surprise” for France, Mr. Bouëssel said.
“It’s a move that’s going to reinforce Déby’s popularity” at home, he added. “It’s a shock move that has a lot of significance for the population” in Chad, which was “the last domino in the Sahel that hadn’t gotten out of France’s domain.”
In April the U.S. announced it was pulling some 75 Special Forces troops from the country after Chadian officials expressed discontent over their presence. It is not clear whether any have returned.
The announcement of France’s departure was all the more surprising in that it came immediately following the departure Thursday from the country of France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot, and on the heels of a report by Mr. Macron’s “personal envoy” to Africa, Jean-Marie Bockel, recommending a drawdown, but not a withdrawal, of French forces there and elsewhere on the continent.
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