The countries of the African Sahel region should thank France

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he is still waiting for the countries of the African Sahel region to thank Paris for preventing it from falling into the hands of extremists, and rejected the suggestion that his country was forced to leave the region..

Speaking to French ambassadors at an annual foreign policy conference for 2025, Macron said that France was right to intervene in 2013 to fight extremists, even if these countries have now distanced themselves from French military support..

Macron said sarcastically: “I think they forgot to thank us, but that’s okay, it will come in due time.”

In the past few years, French forces withdrew from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso after successive military coups, and are now in the process of withdrawing from Chad, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire..

Macron said: “None of them would have become a sovereign state had it not been for the deployment of the French army in this region.”

Macron denied the claim that Paris was expelled from the region, explaining that France decided to reorganize its strategy. He said, “No, France is not retreating in Africa, but is just working to reorganize itself.”