A Break with the Past: The End of French Military Presence in Chad and Senegal
On the 28th of November, only a few hours after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s visit to Chad, the Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs announced the end of the defence accord with France in what was described as a “historical turn”. The announcement coincided with Chad’s Independence Day from the former colonial power. On the same day, the newly elected Senegalese President Faye declared the intention to close French military bases in the country. The date marked the 80th anniversary of a massacre on Senegalese soldiers committed by French forces. While the two declarations – independent of each other – came without any prior notifications, they did not constitute a surprise for observers. Indeed, they are to be seen as part of a broader trend of African states rejecting Western and multilateral security actors while publicly reaffirming their sovereignty. Yet, Chad’s and Senegal’s recent breaks with France differ from how their regional neighbours, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, handled their disengagements with the former colonial power after their respective military coups.
The following analysis argues that to understand the recent disengagements it is necessary to both take the broader geopolitical context into account, which offers new opportunities for actors who want to shift partners, but also to look at internal and regional reasons for a more nuanced understanding of the events. Thus, while anti-French sentiments and the possibility of engaging with new security partners certainly set the context for the Chadian and Senegalese decisions, internal political reasons are equally relevant to comprehend the disengagements. This is also reflected in the way the decisions were communicated, which emphasized continued cooperation with France in other domains. That does not mean, however, that new security partners will not attempt to take advantage of the new situation.
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(Photo credit: Nina Wilén)