Half of the 4,500 French soldiers currently deployed for Operation Barkhane are stationed in Mali but will soon leave the country after coming under pressure from Mali’s new military leaders, who seized power in a 2020 coup.
Against a backdrop of growing anti-French sentiment in the Sahel – and after the expulsion of the French ambassador to Mali in January – Paris announced that it wanted to rely increasingly on the Takuba Task Force, a European military unit, to take the pressure off the French military. […]
Outside Mali, French forces have two permanent military bases in this region. The first is in Niamey, the capital of Niger, where the main air base of Operation Barkhane is located. Along with six Reaper drones and seven Mirage fighter planes, a combat unit also occupies this base, which is located near the so-called three-border zone (the borders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger). Läs artikel