France and its allies in a European force announced Thursday they would begin withdrawing troops from Mali after nearly 10 years of fighting a jihadist insurgency.
A statement signed by France and its African and European allies said that “multiple obstructions” by the ruling junta meant that the conditions were no longer in place to operate in Mali.
The decision applies to both France’s Barkhane force in the Sahel and the Takuba European force that Paris had been trying to forge along with its allies.
The allies, therefore “decided to commence the coordinated withdrawal of their respective military resources dedicated to these operations from Malian territory.
The announcement was made as President Emmanuel Macron is to travel to Brussels on Thursday for a two-day EU-Africa summit, following an 0800 GMT press conference at the Elysee on the “engagement of France in the Sahel”.
The Mali deployment has been fraught with problems for France. Of the 53 soldiers killed serving in its Barkhane mission in West Africa, 48 of them died in Mali.
France initially deployed troops against jihadists in Mali in 2013 but the insurgency was never fully quelled, and now new fears have emerged of a jihadist push to the Gulf of Guinea.
Even after the pull-out from Mali, however, the allies vowed to remain engaged in fighting terror in other countries including Niger.
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