Sahel: Macron announces end of Operation Barkhane as it exists

French president says continuation of military commitment in the Sahel ‘will not be in the same way’, with details to be announced by end of June.

President Emmanuel Macron has said France’s military operation in the violence-hit Sahel region of West Africa will no longer exist in its current form, adding that it will be replaced by another mission of French troops that will further rely on other partners. “The time has come; the continuation of our commitment in the Sahel will not be in the same way,” Macron told a wide-ranging news conference on Thursday, describing a “profound transformation” of his country’s military presence in the region. France currently has about 5,100 troops deployed across the semi-arid strip on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert as part of its Operation Barkhane, whose headquarters are in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena.