Abidjan – France is in the final phase of a pullout from Mali, where it sent troops in 2013 to help the former colony fight a jihadist-backed insurgency.
Here is a snapshot of the major French interventions in Africa since the great wave of French decolonisations in 1960.
France has deployed forces to the continent more than three dozen times. The interventions have overwhelmingly concerned former French colonies, either in a solo capacity in the declared aim of protecting civilians, under bilateral defence agreements or in joint operations alongside African, Western or UN troops.
Sahel
In 2013, France launched Operation Serval to drive out jihadist groups who had joined a regional insurrection in northern Mali the previous year.
Serval was replaced in 2014 by a wider anti-jihadist mission, Operation Barkhane, in Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
Barkhane is now withdrawing from Mali after France fell out with the country’s ruling junta, which has forged ties with the Kremlin.
Under Macron’s orders, the massive pullout should be completed by summer’s end.
By then, Barkhane, which counted 5,100 personnel in the Sahel at its peak, will have “around 2,500” in the region, th operation’s commander General Laurent Michon said in an interview this month.
Of these, more than 1,000 will be in Niger, providing air support and training, French sources say.
French forces in the Sahel will henceforth play more of a support role, helping local militaries, rather than act in their place, Michon said.
Central African Republic (CAR)
In 1979 France staged Operation Barracuda during which Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa, at the time in Libya, was overthrown by French paratroopers.
In 1996-1997 the country was rocked by three successive mutinies. France launched Operation Almandin to provide security for foreigners and evacuate 1,600 people.
In 2006 and 2007 Paris intervened to support CAR troops fighting rebels in the northeast.
In 2013, after the ouster of president Francois Bozize, a bloody civil conflict erupted along sectarian lines. France had a UN go-ahead to send more than 1,000 troops to stabilise CAR. The operation, named Sangaris, was wound up in October 2016 after elections.
Ivory Coast
In 2002, France launched Operation Licorne (Unicorn) to protect foreigners after the country plunged into unrest. Licorne was reconfigured as a rapid reaction force in support of a UN mission.
In 2011, French troops played a key role in forcing out President Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to concede defeat to Alassane Ouattara in elections the previous year sparked a conflict that claimed several thousand lives.
Chad
From 1968-1972, French troops helped the government against a rebellion in the Tibesti region.
In 1983 France launched Operation Manta at the request of President Hissein Habre after a Libyan incursion.
Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo)
In 1978, at the request of the Kinshasa government, 600 French and 1,000 Belgian paratroopers landed on Kolwezi to rescue 2,700 European expatriates from rebels in Shaba.
In 2003 an EU peacekeeping force under French command and called Artemis, quelled a deadly, long-running feud between the Lendu and Hema communities which claimed tens of thousands of lives in the east of the country.
Comoros
In 1989, French troops intervened after the assassination of president Ahmed Abdallah in a coup led by the notorious French mercenary Bob Denard.
In 1995 France’s Operation Azalee foiled another coup led by Denard.
Rwanda
Under its Noroit operation from 1990 to 1993, France sent up to 600 troops to the northwest following an offensive by Ugandan-based rebels from the mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), now in power.
In 1994, some 500 French paratroopers evacuated more than 1,000 French citizens and foreigners after the death of Rwanda’s Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana and the start of the genocide which left some 800 000 dead, mostly Tutsis.
From June to August 1994 France carried out Operation Turquoise, a military operation in Rwanda with humanitarian aims.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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