France has started removing its fighter jets from central African country Chad as its armed forces begin their exit from the former French colony.
The move follows a decision by Chad officials in November to end their military co-operation with France, with the collapse of the arrangement seen as the latest evidence of Paris’ waning influence on the African continent.
According to Reuters, the exit officially began on December 10, with the French pulling out two Mirage fighter jets and a fuel tanker that had been stationed outside Chad’s capital of N’Djamena.
“France is putting an end to its detachment of fighter planes at the Kossei airbase,” a French military source confirmed to news outlets.
Chadian authorities insisted that while it had asked the French to leave, it was not seeking to sever ties fully with Paris.
“The decision in no way constitutes a rejection of international cooperation or a calling into question of our diplomatic relations with France,” the country’s President Mahamat Idriss Déby had earlier told reporters.
“It is not a question of replacing one power with another.”
According to French news outlet RFI, Chad had around 1,000 French troops based there.
The decision by the African country to evict French forces followed similar moves by others in and around the continent’s Sahel region.
Formerly part of the post-colonial Francafrique sphere of influence, countries including Niger, Senegal and Morocco have all sought to distance themselves from their former colonial powers, with some officials instead pushing for closer ties with non-Western states such as Russia and China.
The former French colony of Niger has purged the country’s capital of street names that evoke its colonial master, amidst the continuing decline of the Françafrique system which had previously linked France to many of its former colonies. https://t.co/ALRqqwos3D
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 17, 2024
