France and Allies to Begin Withdrawal From Mali
France and several of its Western allies said on Thursday that they would begin a “coordinated withdrawal” of their military forces from Mali, capping months of an increasingly bitter breakdown in relations with the country’s ruling junta and throwing into uncertainty regional antiterrorism operations spearheaded by French armed forces.
Jihadist groups have spread across Mali, in West Africa, and to the country’s neighbors, even as a coalition of Western and African militaries has tried to fight them, but France, its European partners and Canada have nevertheless “taken the decision to withdraw their military presence in Mali,” said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday.
The accelerated pullout, a far quicker and bumpier withdrawal than France had anticipated, could give ground to terrorist groups, which have grown in numbers and reach over the past decade, killing thousands of civilians and displacing millions. It also raises questions about the use of a military-first approach in a complex crisis with deep social roots.
The withdrawal comes amid a spiraling diplomatic crisis. France accused Mali of employing the services of a controversial Russian paramilitary company, the Wagner group, and railed against the junta that came to power in 2020, saying it was “out of control.” Mali, which denies hosting Russian mercenaries, accused France of abandoning it in the fight against jihadists, and expelled the French ambassador.
Finally, France pulled the plug, accusing Mali of obstructing its operations.
At a news conference, Mr. Macron expressed frustration with the Malian junta and said that the breakdown in relations had prompted France and its allies to rethink their strategy and reorganize their forces.
France sent troops into Mali, a landlocked former French colony, in 2013 to beat back armed Islamists who had taken over its northern cities. Mali, which has longstanding ties to France and a large immigrant population there, had requested the intervention.
But after successfully routing extremists from the cities, France decided to stay on, and the scope of its mission mushroomed. Over 4,000 French soldiers are currently deployed across the Sahel, a wide strip of land that cuts across Africa just below the Sahara. Most of them are in Mali, where there is also a 15,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force.
“We cannot remain militarily engaged with de facto authorities whose strategy and hidden objectives we do not share,” Mr. Macron said at the news conference, which came after a dinner on Wednesday evening between the French leader and Western and African counterparts, and ahead of a summit between European Union and African Union leaders in Brussels.
France’s hasty retreat will likely be hailed as a major victory by the jihadist groups: the withdrawal of foreign forces is one of its two main demands, along with a transformation of society and politics in line with a particular interpretation of Shariah law.
But it could also be welcomed by the junta, which has capitalized on growing anti-France sentiment by the Malian public, which holds France partly responsible for worsening security and corruption among the political elites that the military overthrew.
“They may be saying that they’re choosing to leave, but really from the Malian perspective, they’re being kicked out,” said Hannah Armstrong, an independent analyst focused on the Sahel region.
Mr. Macron said that three military bases in Mali would be shuttered over the next four to six months, in coordination with Malian forces.
While he said that France and its allies were still discussing how their forces would be redeployed, he suggested that there would be a pivot to neighboring Niger and a bigger focus on countries in the Gulf of Guinea, as well as on programs to help civilian populations before military operations become necessary.
“The expectations of our partners have changed,” Mr. Macron said. “The sensibility of public opinion in countries of the region has also changed.”
Amadou Albert Maïga, the parliamentary secretary for Mali’s National Transition Council — a temporary legislative body set up by the junta — said the withdrawal announcement was “predictable given the diplomatic tensions between our two countries,” amid a growing feeling among the population that France wanted to interfere in Malian affairs.
“We exchanged with France, a brethren country, but unfortunately French authorities did not understand,” he said.
Beginning in Mali in 2012, terrorist groups across the Sahel took up arms against their governments, taking advantage of existing grievances held by marginalized communities, recruiting young men with few prospects and cowing villages in rural areas into submission.
Groups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso attack armies who are ill trained or poorly equipped to maintain security in the vast tracts of land that comprise the sand-swept region, and whose own abuses…