Macron accuses African nations of ingratitude

Chad and Senegal have hit back at the French president, one premier saying such comments are a sign of his contempt

The President of France Emmanuel Macron has been rebuked by several African nations after he criticized them for what he said was a lack of gratitude for French military efforts in the region. Paris was still waiting for the Sahel states to thank it for shielding them from a militant onslaught, Macron stated on Monday.

And France was right, the president told an annual French ambassadors’ conference, to intervene in the security crisis in Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara Desert, where many of its former colonies are located.

“I think that they forgot to thank us, but that’s ok, it will come in time,” Macron told the group.

He also asserted that no African nations that France had purportedly assisted during its military campaign launched in 2013 would have been able to withstand attacks from extremist groups without support.

“None of them would have a sovereign state if the French army had not deployed in this region,” the president claimed.

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France sent a military force to Mali in 2013 in response to an Islamic insurgency threatening to overrun its capital, Bamako. In 2014, Paris launched the so-called Operation Barkhane – a counterinsurgency campaign in the Sahel region that involved a 3,000-strong French force.

In recent years, France has been expelled from the West African states of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, following military coups. Chad terminated its defense cooperation agreement with France in November, while Senegal, another former colony, announced that all French military bases on its territory would close by the end of 2025.

Ivory Coast – a former French colony in West Africa – was the last to demand the withdrawal of a local French contingent by January 1, as part of a broader regional trend involving states reassessing their military ties with former colonial powers.

On Monday, Macron denied that France was essentially kicked out of the region, claiming that events were just part of a reorganization plan. “No, France is not on the back foot in Africa, it is just lucid and reorganizing itself,” he stated.

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The president’s comments did not sit well with some African nations. Chad’s foreign minister, Abderaman Koulamallah, hit back on Monday, saying that Macron’s words demonstrate nothing but contempt.

The remarks “reflect a contemptuous attitude towards Africa and Africans,” he said in a televised address, according to AFP. The minister then said that the French government “had to learn to respect Africans,” and added that the French presence in the case of his country “has often been limited to its own strategic interests, without any real lasting impact for the development of the Chadian people.”

Senegal’s prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, also blasted Macron’s comments, pointing out that “France has neither the capacity nor the legitimacy to assure Africa’s security or sovereignty.” He also branded the French president’s claim about a military reorganization in the region “completely false.” 

A decision by Senegal to make French troops leave its territory “stems from its own determination as an independent and sovereign country,” Sonko said.