The French army has always considered it its stronghold in Africa. An aircraft carrier in the middle of the desert that, despite the headwinds coming from the Sahel in recent years, had to be preserved. Chad, which hosts one of the five French military bases on the continent and where generations of French officers have succeeded each other since its independence in 1960, announced on Thursday, November 28, that it was breaking the defense agreement that unites the two countries. a decision “which marks a historical turning point”, according to the press release from Chadian diplomacy, which adds that the time has come “assert its full sovereignty and redefine its strategic partnerships.”
If N’Djamena specifies that “This decision in no way calls into question (…) the ties of friendship between the two nations”the slap is unexpected for Paris. The press release came just as Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s plane had just taken off from Chad, following a quick twenty-four-hour visit to the country. At the Elysée, at the Ministry of the Armed Forces or even on the Quai d’Orsay, no one seemed to have been warned. Several French officers who visited N’Djamena to discuss continued military cooperation had also not been informed.
Indeed, even on the Chadian side, some seemed surprised. According to corroborating sources, the Minister of Defense himself learned of this decision by President Mahamat Idriss Déby just before the publication of the press release. Elected in May, after succeeding his father in 2021, the 40-year-old general was France’s last ally in the Sahel since the French army was expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and then Niger by the junta that seized power there between 2020 and 2023. While already looking towards Moscow, where he traveled in January, the Chadian president barely realized that the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) is opening a preliminary investigation into his against for suspicion of embezzlement. “That was the spark that rebelled the family.” says an official in N’Djamena, agreeing that “Moscow is not far away”, in ambush
“Breakup perfume”
For the French army, the Chadian explosion is all the more disastrous as it occurs a few hours after a first setback inflicted by another historical African partner: Senegal. Shortly before the N’Djamena announcement, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, defender of a sovereignist line, stated in an interview with World that soon there would be no more French soldiers – and therefore no more base in Dakar – in their country. Although French leaders easily minimize the phenomenon, after the divorce with the Sahel countries, the cracks are increasingly visible in all the former colonies. “It is a development that smacks of rupture. “It’s getting water everywhere.” says an African diplomat.
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