Christmas dinner for French troops in Chad

A christmas dinner for about 4,500 French troops deployed in the Sahel region at the Barkhane headquarters in Chadian capital, N’Djamena.

Saturday’s event featuring French President, Emmanuel Macron, is the second courtesy of the Elysee.

“The president has not given any special instructions, the president has expressed the wish that I come with the teams and make a nice Christmas meal for the troops so that’s enough for me, I do not need more set of instructions,“said Guillaume Gomez, Elysee Chief Cook.

Though the menu was strictly the same as last year, guests were twice as many.

Everything was done at the Elysée, everything is homemade, the cakes , the macaroons , the chocolate cakes , the pâtés en croute were made at the Elysée, 3,200 macarons, a hundred cakes, more than 50 crusted pies, a total of two tons of freight,” he added.

The special dinner also served as an opportunity for Macron to take stock of Operation Barkhane, launched in 2014 to fight against jihadists in the Sahel.

According to the Elysee, Emmanuel Macron embarked on this first visit to Chad to reaffirm his commitment to the fight against extremism in the Sahel region.