France's president sees new role for its Djibouti military base

After being forced to withdraw its troops from the Sahel region in West Africa, France’s president said on Friday that its military base in Djibouti could assume a great role.

Emmanuel Macron said it would be “reinvented” as a projection point for the country’s missions in Africa.

Currently the base is more focused on the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Indo-Pacific than it is on Africa.

Macron described the move as a strategic decision which is part of France’s restructuring of its approach on the African continent.

“Our role is changing in Africa, but that's what we wanted because the world is changing in Africa, because public opinion is changing, because governments are changing,” he said.

“And because we decided in a sovereign way in February 2023, after several years of gradual change, to rebuild a partnership that is based on partners, respected.’

He was speaking on Friday after sharing a Christmas dinner with the 1,500 French soldiers at its airbase in Djibouti, which recently renewed its defence cooperation treaty with Paris.

That makes it home to France’s largest military contingent aboard.

French forces were successively pushed out of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger – all three under military rule - between 2022 and 2023.

Its troops have begun withdrawing from Chad in the latest blow to its dwindling influence across its former colonies in Africa.

Senegal has requested the departure of French troops while they are being reduced to a bare minimum in Gabon and Cote d’Ivoire.