France will complete this Thursday its withdrawal from Senegal by formally handing over their last military base of Camp Geille to the Senegalese Armed Forces, following a joint three-month retrocession process.
The departure of foreign troops from the country was a promise of the left-wing pan-Africanist coalition PASTEF, which decisively won the Senegalese presidential and legislative elections in 2024 after a chaotic electoral process that saw the pro-West President Macky Sall jail multiple opponents and attempt to cancel the elections.
The withdrawal from Senegal is the latest disengagement from a continent long considered as the “preserve” of France following the decolonization process in the 1960s. In 2016, French troops departed from the Central African Republic following the conclusion of Opération Sangaris, aimed at preventing ethnic massacres in the world’s poorest country – whose government proceeded to pivot to Russia.
In 2021, 2022 and 2023, French troops were expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger where they were conducting anti-jihadi counterinsurgency operations following coups d’etat against the civilian governments by pro-Russia juntas. France handed over their military bases in Chad in 2025 after the ruling junta denounced the bilateral military accords in a surprise move.
The disengagement was conducted more smoothly in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, where France jointly proceeded to the handover with civilian governments, as well as in Gabon, where the military leader Brice Oligui, who took power in a coup in 2023, oversaw an arrangement for a joint administration of the Camp de Gaulle base by Gabon and France.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye stressed that the handover of military bases and the departure of French troops did not mean the country would cut ties with its former colonizer, insisting that France remained a key military and economic partner, but that sovereignty meant Senegal could not tolerate foreign troops on its soil. He also demanded France formally apologize for the 1944 Thiaroye massacre, in which dozens, if not hundreds, of Senegalese troops who fought for France during WW2 were massacred by colonial troops.
Senegal had long been a “special partner” of France: its first President, Léopold Sédar Senghor, served as an MP and minister in the French government and considered maintaining Senegal as an associated state of France during the decolonization process – while he agreed to independence, he maintained very close ties and was a pillar of “Françafrique”, refusing to align with the Soviet bloc despite identifying as an African Socialist.
Symbolically, France’s departure from Senegal marks the end of nearly two centuries of military presence in West and Central Africa, leaving Djibouti as its sole exclusive military asset on the continent.
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If they’re replaced with Russia and Wagner troops, I’m gonna be upset
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All things considered, at least it was because “we won the election and we promised that we would expel French troops”. Its good that a party elected democratically is keeping its promises. Also, this is not the “Burkina Faso makes tomato purée! Glory to Traore and down with the West” slop we’ve seen in the Sahel. The president is maintaining ties with France in other ways still.
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!ping AFRICA&FRANCE
France will complete this Thursday its withdrawal from Senegal by formally handing over their last military base of Camp Geille to the Senegalese Armed Forces, following a joint three-month retrocession process.
The departure of foreign troops from the country was a promise of the left-wing pan-Africanist coalition PASTEF, which decisively won the Senegalese presidential and legislative elections in 2024 after a chaotic electoral process that saw the pro-West President Macky Sall jail multiple opponents and attempt to cancel the elections.
The withdrawal from Senegal is the latest disengagement from a continent long considered as the “preserve” of France following the decolonization process in the 1960s. In 2016, French troops departed from the Central African Republic following the conclusion of Opération Sangaris, aimed at preventing ethnic massacres in the world’s poorest country – whose government proceeded to pivot to Russia.
In 2021, 2022 and 2023, French troops were expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger where they were conducting anti-jihadi counterinsurgency operations following coups d’etat against the civilian governments by pro-Russia juntas. France handed over their military bases in Chad in 2025 after the ruling junta denounced the bilateral military accords in a surprise move.
The disengagement was conducted more smoothly in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, where France jointly proceeded to the handover with civilian governments, as well as in Gabon, where the military leader Brice Oligui, who took power in a coup in 2023, oversaw an arrangement for a joint administration of the Camp de Gaulle base by Gabon and France.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye stressed that the handover of military bases and the departure of French troops did not mean the country would cut ties with its former colonizer, insisting that France remained a key military and economic partner, but that sovereignty meant Senegal could not tolerate foreign troops on its soil. He also demanded France formally apologize for the 1944 Thiaroye massacre, in which dozens, if not hundreds, of Senegalese troops who fought for France during WW2 were massacred by colonial troops.
Senegal had long been a “special partner” of France: its first President, Léopold Sédar Senghor, served as an MP and minister in the French government and considered maintaining Senegal as an associated state of France during the decolonization process – while he agreed to independence, he maintained very close ties and was a pillar of “Françafrique”, refusing to align with the Soviet bloc despite identifying as an African Socialist.
Symbolically, France’s departure from Senegal marks the end of nearly two centuries of military presence in West and Central Africa, leaving Djibouti as its sole exclusive military asset on the continent.
If they’re replaced with Russia and Wagner troops, I’m gonna be upset
All things considered, at least it was because “we won the election and we promised that we would expel French troops”. Its good that a party elected democratically is keeping its promises. Also, this is not the “Burkina Faso makes tomato purée! Glory to Traore and down with the West” slop we’ve seen in the Sahel. The president is maintaining ties with France in other ways still.