7/26/2025–|Last update: 01:54 (Mecca time)
Thani Mohamed Sweilehi, French Minister of State in charge of Francophone and international partnerships, said on Friday that insecurity in countries in West Africa no longer belongs to France.
Last week, France handed over its largest military base in Senegal about half a century after being there, and thus Paris had lost a major foothold in West Africa.
Sweilehi’s comments came at a news conference on the phone from South Africa, where a week attends the G20 discussions on global development.
“I regret this, but it is no longer concerned with us,” he said in response to a question from Reuters about the risk of insecurity posed by the absence of the French military presence.