Having initially announced on Thursday that it would withdraw its troops from Mali over a breakdown in relations with the country's ruling junta, Paris has finally acted in accordance with its decision. The former colonial power’s decision to withdraw its last batch of troops from its former colony comes after nearly 10 years of fighting a jihadist insurgency that still poses a major threat to the West African nation and beyond.
The deployment has been fraught with casualties for France and of the 53 French soldiers killed serving in West Africa's Sahel region, 48 died whilst on a mission in Mali. "Multiple obstructions" by the military junta that took power in August 2020 meant the conditions were no longer in place to operate in Mali, said a statement signed by France and its African and European allies.
The last French armed forces in Mali have since relocated to Niger, after a falling out with Mali's military government and its alleged use of Russian mercenaries. French forces have officially left Malian territory, according to a French armed forces ministry press release. “The last military unit of the Barkhane Force present on Malian territory crossed the border between Mali and Niger,” at 11:00 A.M. local time Monday, the release says.
The French army initially intervened in Mali in 2013, in Operation Serval, after northern Mali was taken over by Islamist militant groups in 2012. Operation Serval was replaced by the anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane in 2014. Operation Barkhane will now be based in Niger.
Though then-French President François Hollande received a warm welcome in newly-liberated Timbuktu on arrival in 2013, the Malian public has turned sour toward French forces in recent years, with several protests held in cities across Mali calling for the forces’ imminent and unconditional departure.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced in February that French forces would withdraw over a period of 4-6 months, amid increasing tensions between France and Mali’s military government and France’s accusations that Mali is working with mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary company with links to the Kremlin.
Human Rights Watch and several international media outlets have reported on alleged extrajudicial killings and abuses committed by Russian mercenaries in Mali. Mali's military government has continually denied the accusations and says it only works with official Russian instructors.
Meanwhile, 2022 has been one of the deadliest so far in Mali’s decade-long conflict, with both civilians and soldiers targeted by Islamists. Forty-two Malian soldiers were killed this month during an attack in Tessit, and Mali’s main military base in Kati, just 15 kilometers from Bamako, was attacked in July.
In June, 132 civilians were murdered by suspected Islamists in an attack in central Mali. Mali also underwent protracted tensions with its West African neighbors this year, with regional bloc ECOWAS imposing sanctions after military rulers proposed a -year delay in elections. The sanctions were lifted in July after elections were scheduled for 2024.
President Emmanuel Macron had previously stated that the “heart” of the French operation will be moved to Niger, especially in the region bordering Burkina Faso. The so-called Barkhane force however remains involved in Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauretania.