PARIS (Dispatches) – France plans to close its permanent military bases in Senegal, as well as in other countries in West and Central Africa, by the summer of 2025, Senegalese news agency reported, citing a French military source.
“Today we are in a phase of dialogue for the implementation of the withdrawal of French forces from Senegal. What I can say is that there will no longer be a permanent French military base in Senegal in the summer of 2025,” the source said, as quoted by APS.
In late December, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye confirmed that the country intends to get rid of the foreign military presence as early as 2025.
In 2022, the French military, which had been present in Africa’s Sahel region since 2014 as part of the anti-terrorism Operation Barkhane, was forced to leave Mali. 
In 2023, France also withdrew its troops from Burkina Faso and Niger at the request of the countries’ authorities. 
In late November 2024, the Chadian Foreign Ministry announced the termination of defense cooperation with France, and France already started the withdrawal of its troops from Chad.
Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby said earlier this month all French military units will leave the African country by the end of January, weeks after the former French colony announced it was terminating its defense pact with Paris.
In a televised address to the nation, Deby set January 31 as the deadline for the complete withdrawal of French troops from the Central African nation, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
“I welcome the withdrawal of the first wave of French forces stationed in Chad. Other waves ... will follow until the complete withdrawal on Jan. 31, 2025,” he said.
“We have given priority to Chad’s supreme interests by adhering to the sovereignty of our country,” Deby stressed, adding that he was convinced that the decision was a response to a “common and legitimate aspiration” of the Chadian people.
Chad has been an ally for France in its alleged counterterrorism mission and one of the last countries where France kept a significant military presence. However, French forces have been driven out of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso in recent years after purportedly fighting Takfiri terrorists with local troops. These African countries have since aligned more with Russia.
The withdrawal from Chad will mark the end of decades of French military presence in the Sahel and conclude France’s so-called operations against Takfiri terrorists in the region.
The landlocked country sitting at the crossroads of North and Central Africa has been on edge since the death of longtime ruler Idriss Deby in 2021, after which his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, seized power.