Chad announces it will end its defense cooperation agreement with France
The government of Chad announced this Friday that it will terminate its security and defense cooperation agreement with France, which was revised in 2019, following this week’s visit by the French Foreign Minister. Jean-Noel BarrotTo African country.
“The Government of the Republic of Chad informs the national and international public of its decision to terminate the defense cooperation agreement signed with the French Republic,” the minister said in a statement late Thursday. Abderraman Koulamallah,
“This decision, taken after thorough analysis, marks a historical turning pointIndeed, 66 years after the proclamation of the Republic of Chad, the time has come for Chad to assert its full sovereignty and redefine its strategic partnership with the French authorities,” the minister said.
Koulamallah has shed light on Your country agrees to abide by the conditions established in agreement to cooperate with Paris to end it and guarantee a “harmonious transition”, noting that the decision “in no way calls into question the historical ties and ties of friendship between the two countries.”
France currently has about 1,000 troops and warplanes deployed in Chad. In another blow to France, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Fay said in an interview with French state television on Thursday that it was inappropriate for French troops to maintain a presence in his country.
The implications of breaking the agreement are still unclear
“Chad is determined Maintain constructive relations with France in other areas of common interest, for the benefit of both peoples”, the Chadian leader concluded.
Implications not yet clear Canceling the agreement could mean the withdrawal of thousands of French troops and warplanes from Chadian territory, the last country with a French military presence in the restive Sahel region.
has been announced Once Barot had already left ChadAfter landing in the country on Wednesday night and Thursday visiting a refugee camp in the border town of Adre, whose 40,000 residents have swelled sevenfold since April 2023 following the arrival of 230,000 refugees from Sudan due to the war in that country. ,
this was French minister’s first visit to sub-Saharan Africa Since assuming office last September.
Aurélie Bazara-Kibungula/AFP
America had announced the withdrawal of most of its troops from Chad and Niger in April.
The Chadian government’s decision comes months after the United States Department of Defense announced in April the withdrawal of most troops deployed in Chad and neighboring Niger. Combat Jihadism in the Sahel.
Pentagon Press Secretary, pat rider, Then announced that the US would transfer most of the hundred troops present in Chad, while negotiations continued between Washington and the Chadian executive within the framework of a “review” of their security cooperation.
Furthermore, in another blow to France, the President of Senegal, bassirou diomaye fayeannounced this Thursday in an interview on French state television that it was “inappropriate” for French troops to maintain a presence in their country.
Chad’s decision is another nail in the coffin France’s historical and colonial role in West and Central AfricaIt was forced to withdraw its troops from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso after the first military coup.
Since then, The military junta has turned to RussiaWhich has deployed mercenaries throughout the Sahel region, a strip of countries that stretches from the northwest to the northeastern coast of Africa, and which has strengthened ties with Chad’s president.
they work in the sahel Armed groups associated with Al Qaeda and DaeshApart from the Nigerian Boko Haram.