The latest French military installations in Senegal must be officially returned to this country, Thursday, July 17 in the morning, during a historic ceremony in Dakar, which will mark the end of the permanent presence of the French army, not only in Senegal (where it has been present since independence, in 1960), but more generally in West Africa and Central Africa. Since 2022, the French army has, in fact, ended its permanent presence in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Gabon, where its base has turned into a Gabono-Français “shared camp” focused on training.
The Geille camp, the largest French military installation in Senegal (located in the capital), and the military aeronautical stopover (located at the airport) must have been returned to the Senegalese state, Thursday, during a ceremony in the presence of General Mbaye Cissé, chief of staff of the Armies of Senegal, and General Pascal Ianni, at the head of the command of the French army for Africa. This day marks the official end of French elements in Senegal (EFS), which included around 350 soldiers whose main mission is to conduct operational military partnership activities with the Senegalese armed forces.
The French military presence in Senegal has been based since 1960 on bilateral defense and cooperation agreements, with a “Construction support” of the Senegalese army between 1960 and 1974. After its independence, Senegal had remained one of the safest African allies in France, a former dominant colonial power in West Africa. But the new leaders in office since April 2024 have now promised to deal with France like other foreign partners, in the name of recovered sovereignty.
A “renovated partnership”
The Senegalese president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who came to power with a rupture agenda, announced in November 2024 the end of any French and foreign military presence on national soil in 2025. “Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country and sovereignty does not accommodate the presence of military bases in a sovereign country”he said. Mr. Faye had assured that it was not an act of « rupture » and had defended a “Renovated partnership” with the old colonial power.
The French withdrawal was started in March and several facilities have already been returned, since, by the French army. But it had been acted, on the French side, from 2011-2012. In 2011, the French forces of CAP-Vert (FFCV), created in 1974, had, in fact, left room for the EFS, not having combat units but a reservoir of specialized instructors. And in 2012, a change in the form of the military partnership was ratified by the signing of the treaty establishing a partnership in military cooperation between the two countries. Since then, the defense of the integrity of the territory has been ensured by the Senegalese armed forces alone.
The French withdrawal from Senegal was made in consultation, in an African landscape largely defying towards the French presence. In the Sahel, faced with the takeover, by putschs, of junts who have become hostile, the French army deployed in the fight antidjihadist had to fold luggage, willingly or by force. It still has a base in Djibouti, which welcomes 1,500 people. Paris wishes to make it a “Projection point” for them « missions » In Africa after the withdrawal of his Sahel forces.
