The announcement had the effect of thunder in the night in N’Djamena. In a press release published on Thursday, November 28, a few hours after the end of the visit to Chad by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, the Chadian government declared “end the defense cooperation agreement signed with the French Republic”.
The announcement took all observers by surprise, while the minister and his entourage left nothing to show after their meeting with the president, Mahamat Idriss Déby. “France must now consider that Chad has grown and matured, that Chad is a sovereign State and very jealous of its sovereignty,” his Chadian counterpart, Abderaman Koulamallah, simply stated at the conclusion of a joint statement essentially dedicated to the Sudanese civil war.
Joined by the world In the afternoon, the head of Chadian diplomacy assured that the meeting took place without incident, that it was a decision “carefully considered” and that the choice of the date is not due to chance since November 28th marks the 66thmy Anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic in Chad.
Koulamallah did not specify whether this was a unilateral decision or whether it was taken in consultation with the French authorities, who had not yet reacted by Friday morning. The announcement comes in a context that is increasingly uncertain about the future of the French military presence in Africa. On the same day, the Senegalese President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, declared, in an interview with Worldthat he “Soon there will be no more French soldiers” in your country. In recent years, the French army has been successively expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger after a series of coups d’état and the coming to power of junta hostile to Paris. Chad, however, distinguishes itself from these Sahel countries by ensuring that “This decision in no way calls into question the historical relations and ties of friendship between the two nations.” The Chadian statement leaves the door open to a “Constructive dialogue to explore new forms of association”.
The last ally in the Sahel
However, the blow remains hard for France, even though Chad was its last ally in the Sahel and a last bulwark against the growing influence of Russia, which has deployed paramilitary forces in several border countries. After the commotion caused by the visit of the Chadian president in January to Moscow, where he was received by his counterpart Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron tried to warm up his relations with N’Djamena by sending his “personal envoy” to reconfigure the French military system on the continent. , Jean-Marie Bockel. The latter then declared his “admiration” for the Chadian transition and assured about the French troops in Chad: “We must stay and of course we will stay.” On Monday, Bockel presented his report to the president, in which he calls for reducing the number of soldiers deployed on the continent, including Chad.
You have 49.73% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
