Berliner Boersenzeitung - Macron expected to announce Mali withdrawal

EUR -
AED 4.177061
AFN 81.880746
ALL 99.252011
AMD 444.590879
ANG 2.049629
AOA 1037.158904
ARS 1294.140504
AUD 1.780172
AWG 2.047025
AZN 1.934273
BAM 1.956825
BBD 2.294803
BDT 138.092365
BGN 1.957857
BHD 0.428625
BIF 3332.101328
BMD 1.137236
BND 1.492134
BOB 7.854392
BRL 6.605289
BSD 1.136596
BTN 97.022843
BWP 15.66621
BYN 3.71968
BYR 22289.824581
BZD 2.282996
CAD 1.574122
CDF 3271.827709
CHF 0.930816
CLF 0.028662
CLP 1099.8895
CNY 8.30054
CNH 8.306047
COP 4901.486936
CRC 571.199327
CUC 1.137236
CUP 30.136753
CVE 110.766012
CZK 25.063085
DJF 202.109303
DKK 7.466602
DOP 68.805429
DZD 150.758836
EGP 58.14335
ERN 17.058539
ETB 151.279275
FJD 2.597108
FKP 0.857926
GBP 0.857288
GEL 3.11624
GGP 0.857926
GHS 17.695226
GIP 0.857926
GMD 81.308645
GNF 9843.34469
GTQ 8.754588
GYD 238.429138
HKD 8.827976
HNL 29.46444
HRK 7.529411
HTG 148.317723
HUF 408.387093
IDR 19177.096068
ILS 4.180337
IMP 0.857926
INR 97.094362
IQD 1489.779092
IRR 47906.064943
ISK 145.100319
JEP 0.857926
JMD 179.644139
JOD 0.806641
JPY 161.853129
KES 147.269042
KGS 99.205075
KHR 4566.00226
KMF 493.004864
KPW 1023.518647
KRW 1613.043966
KWD 0.34871
KYD 0.947196
KZT 594.971784
LAK 24598.413673
LBP 101896.340892
LKR 339.937138
LRD 227.418736
LSL 21.444738
LTL 3.357962
LVL 0.687903
LYD 6.220968
MAD 10.547909
MDL 19.662304
MGA 5177.713287
MKD 61.514233
MMK 2387.530139
MNT 4022.532693
MOP 9.086962
MRU 44.847502
MUR 51.277935
MVR 17.51173
MWK 1974.241931
MXN 22.425326
MYR 5.012366
MZN 72.675065
NAD 21.444738
NGN 1824.91419
NIO 41.821916
NOK 11.92757
NPR 155.236349
NZD 1.917428
OMR 0.437833
PAB 1.136596
PEN 4.279431
PGK 4.700463
PHP 64.495497
PKR 319.106406
PLN 4.278742
PYG 9097.767521
QAR 4.140223
RON 4.978935
RSD 117.291464
RUB 93.451578
RWF 1609.188866
SAR 4.267179
SBD 9.516785
SCR 16.196165
SDG 682.914226
SEK 10.940409
SGD 1.490626
SHP 0.893689
SLE 25.900597
SLL 23847.250746
SOS 649.925676
SRD 42.24872
STD 23538.488054
SVC 9.945212
SYP 14786.663141
SZL 21.402912
THB 37.923377
TJS 12.206811
TMT 3.980326
TND 3.398079
TOP 2.663519
TRY 43.420522
TTD 7.712041
TWD 36.987508
TZS 3056.319626
UAH 47.101683
UGX 4166.329832
USD 1.137236
UYU 47.664978
UZS 14768.739292
VES 91.955341
VND 29420.293975
VUV 138.799625
WST 3.16989
XAF 656.312471
XAG 0.034867
XAU 0.000342
XCD 3.073437
XDR 0.816192
XOF 653.91086
XPF 119.331742
YER 278.907389
ZAR 21.42589
ZMK 10236.488002
ZMW 32.36396
ZWL 366.189511
  • BCC

    0.7800

    93.47

    +0.83%

  • BCE

    0.4200

    22.04

    +1.91%

  • NGG

    0.6300

    72.11

    +0.87%

  • GSK

    0.5600

    35.93

    +1.56%

  • BP

    0.6600

    28.32

    +2.33%

  • BTI

    0.5400

    42.37

    +1.27%

  • SCS

    0.0500

    9.76

    +0.51%

  • CMSC

    0.0400

    21.82

    +0.18%

  • RBGPF

    63.5900

    63.59

    +100%

  • JRI

    0.1600

    12.4

    +1.29%

  • AZN

    0.5400

    67.59

    +0.8%

  • RELX

    1.0000

    52.2

    +1.92%

  • CMSD

    0.0400

    21.96

    +0.18%

  • RIO

    1.0100

    58.17

    +1.74%

  • RYCEF

    -0.1400

    9.36

    -1.5%

  • VOD

    0.1400

    9.31

    +1.5%

Macron expected to announce Mali withdrawal
Macron expected to announce Mali withdrawal

Macron expected to announce Mali withdrawal

French President Emmanuel Macron this week will announce that French troops will be withdrawn from Mali and redeployed elsewhere in the Sahel following a breakdown in ties with the country's military regime, concurring sources say.

Text size:

Several security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Macron's announcement to end the nine-year French mission in Mali will coincide with a European Union-African Union summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

France initially deployed troops in 2013 to beat back advancing jihadist fighters in northern Mali.

But the extremists regrouped and in 2015 moved into central Mali, an ethnic powder-keg, before launching cross-border attacks on neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Now, sporadic raids on countries to the south have raised fears of a jihadist push to the Gulf of Guinea.

The expected pullout amounts to a major strategic shift by France, spurred by a breakdown in its relations with Mali, a former colony and traditional ally, after two military coups.

The withdrawal will end a mission that successive French presidents had argued was crucial for regional and European security.

"If the conditions are no longer in place for us to be able to act in Mali -- which is clearly the case -- we will continue to fight terrorism side-by-side with Sahel countries who want it," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday.

Macron, who was already planning to reduce the almost 5,000 troops deployed in the Sahel region, is expected to announce redeployments to other bases operated by French forces in neighbouring countries such as Niger.

He is due to host allied African leaders for informal talks in Paris Wednesday ahead of the summit, diplomatic sources said.

With a presidential election looming in April, Macron is eager to avoid comparisons with the US' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last year -- or any suggestion that the deaths of 48 French soldiers have been in vain.

- European fight -

After two coups in Mali since 2020, France and other Western nations complain that the junta has missed deadlines to restore civilian rule and become increasingly hostile to the presence of French and European soldiers on its soil.

This has coincided with the regime developing close ties with Russia, including turning to suspected mercenaries from Russia's private military contractor Wagner.

Last year, Macron announced a reduction of France's Barkhane force amid questions over both the financial cost of the nearly decade-long mission and its rising human toll, prompting a furious reaction from Mali.

In recent years, fellow EU nations had joined France in the Sahel, sharing the military and financial burden and -- Paris hoped -- limiting long-standing allegations of French interference in its former African colonies.

But the bell is tolling for this mission.

Denmark announced it was withdrawing its contingent of elite soldiers in late January and Norway has abandoned a planned deployment.

"It's impossible to continue in such conditions," Estonian Defence Minister Kalle Laanet told the Postimees daily on Saturday.

Sources familiar with negotiations said there had been disagreement among Europeans as well as with the British and Americans about a wider departure, including over the risks of leaving Mali open to Russian influence.

But France believes it has smoothed these concerns.

France is promising to coordinate its move with the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping force and to continue to support an EU training mission for the Malian army, providing them with air power and medical support for the time being, a source close to the French presidency said.

"The real game changer is that the Malian army will lose our air support from one day to the next, that poses a risk of a security gap," the source added.

- 'In the neighbourhood' -

Even if European forces quit Mali, "there will always be some kind of cooperation" between EU and Sahel states, said Ornella Moderan of the Institute for Security Studies.

"The Europeans can't do without the Sahel, it's in their neighbourhood."

Just this weekend, France said its troops had killed 40 jihadists in Burkina Faso, including individuals believed to be behind three improvised bomb attacks in northern Benin that killed nine people including one French national.

European governments fear that shifting relationships with the region's rulers risk leaving a vacuum for movements tied to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

As well as Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea Bissau have been hit by recent military coups.

In Mali, the government failed to commit resources to re-impose its authority on areas that had been cleared of jihadists by French troops, and the armed forces remain weak despite years of effort to train them up.

"It will be important to learn the lessons from the Sahel" if the action expands to Gulf of Guinea countries, said Bakary Sambe of the Timbuktu Institute thinktank.

(B.Hartmann--BBZ)