France’s withdrawal from Mali: a victory for the Kremlin?

Now, the Kremlin has spotted an opportunity to expand its influence across Africa

A French soldier in a field in Mali
A French soldier from the military operation in Mali in 2013
(Image credit: Fred Marie/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images)

France’s imminent military withdrawal from Mali has grim echoes of the West’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan last year, said François Brousseau in Le Devoir (Montreal). Paris first sent troops to Mali in 2013 to defeat jihadists threatening to take over the west African nation; but the mission turned into a nine-year struggle against the militants. Now a diplomatic breakdown between France and the military junta that overthrew Mali’s elected government in 2020 has led President Macron to announce that his 2,400 troops there will be gone by the summer.

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