After more than six decades, French troops completed their withdrawal from Chad this week before a January 31 deadline, the latest blow to France’s shrinking military hold in its former West and Central Africa strongholds.
N’Djamena abruptly cut ties with Paris in December and ended a military pact that saw 1,000 French soldiers stationed in the country. The sprawling nation is a prime spot for monitoring and launching missions against the swarm of armed groups operating in the troubled Sahel region, but also for monitoring activities in neighbouring war-wracked Libya.
