French President Emmanuel Macron has announced France will withdraw its forces from Mali
The latest development comes amid a breakdown in relations with the country’s military leaders.
The President says attitudes of Mali’s ruling junta has forced France to pull out and denies its almost decade-long deployment had ended in failure.
“We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de-facto authorities whose strategy and hidden aims we do not share”
The pullout from Mali, with a redeployment of forces to other countries in the region, amounts to a major strategic shift by France, ending a nine-year mission that successive French presidents had argued was crucial for regional and European security.
