French President Emmanuel Macron has criticised some African leaders in the Sahel region as ungrateful despite France’s military efforts to combat terrorism and support their sovereignty.
At a conference in Paris on Monday, Mr Macron told French ambassadors that France’s military interventions in the Sahel to fight terrorism had been reciprocated with ingratitude.
“We had a security relationship. It was in two folds: One was our commitment against terrorism since 2013. I think someone forgot to say thank you. It does not matter, it will come with time,” Mr Macron said. “Ingratitude, I am well placed to know, is a disease not transmissible to man.”
The French leader claimed that none of the countries in the Sahel region would have been sovereign had it not been for French military support. He also excused the recent withdrawal of French military bases from the region on a wave of coups.
“None of them would be a sovereign country today if the French army had not deployed in the region,” Mr Macron said.
He added, “We left because there were coups d’état. We were there at the request of sovereign states that had asked France to come. From the moment there were coups d’état, and when people said ‘our priority is no longer the fight against terrorism’… France no longer had a place there because we are not the auxiliaries of putschists. So, we left.”
In response to Mr Macron’s outburst, Chad’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdulrahman Koulamallah, criticised France’s “contemptuous attitude towards Africa and Africans.”
“France has never provided the Chadian army in a significant way or contributed to its structural development,” Mr Koulamallah said.
“In 60 years of presence, marked by civil wars, rebellions and prolonged political instability, the French contribution has often been limited to its own strategic interests, without any real lasting impact on the development of the Chadian people.”
The French government has withdrawn its troops and military bases from Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali following the wave of coups in the region fuelled by anti-French sentiments, paving the way for the rise of military juntas.
Meanwhile, France prepares to withdraw its troops from Chad, Senegal, and Ivory Coast.
