Macron hosts African leaders ahead of France’s expected withdrawal from Mali

Macron hosts African leaders ahead of France’s expected withdrawal from Mali

President Emmanuel Macron hosts African leaders on Wednesday ahead of an expected announcement that France is withdrawing its troops from Mali after an almost decade-long deployment to battle a jihadist insurgency.





Multiple sources have told AFP that Macron will announce that French forces will leave Mali and redeploy elsewhere in the Sahel region, following a breakdown in relations with the ruling junta.

Macron is to travel to Brussels Thursday for a two-day EU-Africa summit. But the French presidency announced he will hold an 0800 GMT press conference at the Élysée on the "engagement of France in the Sahel", where he is likely to make the formal announcement.

The Mali deployment has been fraught with problems for France, with 48 of the 53 soldiers killed during its Barkhane mission in West Africa losing their lives in the country.

France initially deployed troops against jihadists in Mali in 2013 but the insurgency was never fully quelled, and new fears have now emerged of a jihadist push to the Gulf of Guinea.

The deployment in Mali of a European force known as Takuba – a project driven by Macron to spread the security burden in the troubled region  – will also come to an