On the eve of Bastille Day, French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to reshape the country’s armies.
At a reception on Wednesday with the army’s high command, Macron hinted that he wanted to change the structure, the procedures and the chain of command of France’s armed forces by the first half of 2023.
This overhaul is set to impact France’s involvement in the Africa’s Sahel region in the wake of the country’s ongoing withdrawal from Mali.
“It’s a strategic necessity because we need deployments that are less entrenched and less exposed, to build a lasting and closer cooperation with African armies and rebuild our training capabilities”, Macron told a crowd of ministers and senior officers.
According to africanews, the Mali deployment has been fraught with problems for France. Out of the 53 French soldiers killed serving in West Africa, 48 of them died in Mali. Also, recent coups in Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso have weakened French alliances and emboldened jihadists who control large swathes of the region.
Meanwhile, the country celebrated its national holiday on Thursday, July 14, with thousands of French and allied troops marching down the Champs-Elysées. Soldiers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary participated in the parade in a show of unity between European allies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
