13 January 2021
The Independent, 8 January 2021.
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"As it pays tribute Thursday to its soldiers killed in Mali and faces questions over a deadly airstrike, France is considering changing its military strategy against Islamic extremists in Africa’s Sahel region — and a possible partial troop pullout.
President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce a timeframe for the evolution of France's largest international military operation at a summit in Chad's capital N'Djamena next month.
On Thursday afternoon, an elaborate ceremony will be held on the Alexandre III bridge in central Paris to pay homage to two soldiers killed in Mali by an improvised explosive device that hit their armored vehicle on Saturday. Three other French soldiers died just five days earlier in similar circumstances.
France's operation in Mali is also shadowed by unclear circumstances surrounding an airstrike that killed at least 20 people in a village where witnesses said Islamic extremists had confronted a wedding party. The French military said those killed were members of a “terrorist armed group" with no connection to a wedding.
French troops have been present in Mali since 2013 when they intervened to force Islamic extremist rebels from power. The operation, called Barkhane, was then expanded to include Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania to improve security and stability in the broader Sahel region.
Defense Minister Florence Parly said France will “very likely” reduce its 5,100 troops in the Sahel region, in an interview to Le Parisien newspaper earlier this week. No specific figures have been released."
Source: France seeks strategy change to reduce troops in West Africa (The Independent, link)
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