French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that France was ending its Barkhane anti-jihadist mission in Africa after over a decade, saying a new strategy would be worked out with African partners, reports Africanews.
The declaration came in a wide-ranging speech reviewing France's strategy where the president also underlined the importance of its nuclear deterrent, as well as relations with Germany and the United Kingdom despite recent tensions.
Macron laid out his strategic defence priorities for France in Europe and Africa in the coming years, not least in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a growing international assertiveness of China.
"I have decided, in coordination with our partners, to make official today the end of the Barkhane operation," Macron said in the keynote speech on military policy to top generals and diplomats aboard a helicopter carrier Mediterranean naval base at Toulon.
The move was the "consequence of what we have experienced" in recent months, and a new strategy would be worked out within the next half-year, he added.
"Our military support for African countries will continue, but according to new principles that we have defined with them," said Macron.
He indicated that future strategy would be based on a far closer cooperation with African armies to make France's own deployment lighter and more dynamic.
French forces have faced growing hostility from some who see them as the ineffective occupying force of a former colonial power, and Macron pulled troops out of Mali this year as relations soured with the country's military rulers.