Forced Withdrawal: The Case of France in the Sahel Region

Abstract

Once part of the French colonial empire, the Sahel region played an important role in France’s Africa policy. All French presidents had their specific approach towards the region. Emanuel Macron, with his 2017 speech on the Sorbonne even claimed that the Sahel is not just important for France but the European Union as a whole. But the Europeanisation went hand in hand with serious French commitment too. Since Bamako’s invitation France had a significant military presence in the region, which may have transformed over time, but remained in the region. However until 2022 the status quo remained similar, lines of fragmentation became more and more visible. The coup epidemic, and growing Russian influence in the Central Sahel affected French interventions too, leading to a large scale withdrawal from the region. The present paper attempts to capture these changes in the relations between France and the Central Sahel.