France seeks strategy change to reduce troops in West Africa

As it pays tribute Thursday to its soldiers killed in Mali and faces questions over a dely airstrike, France is considering changing its military strategy against Islamic extremists in Africa’s Sahel region — and a possible partial troop pullout.

President Emmanuel Macron is expected to anunce a timeframe for evolution of France's largest international military operation at a summit in Ch's capital N'Djamena next month.

On Thursday afteron, an elaborate ceremony will be held on Alexandre III bridge in central Paris to pay hom to two soldiers killed in Mali by an improvised explosive device that hit ir armored vehicle on Saturday. Three or French soldiers died just five days earlier in similar circumstances.

France's operation in Mali is also showed by unclear circumstances surrounding an airstrike that killed at least 20 people in a vill where witnesses said Islamic extremists h confronted a wedding party. French military said those killed were members of a “terrorist armed group" with connection to a wedding.

French troops have been present in Mali since 2013 when y intervened to force Islamic extremist rebels from power. operation, called Barkhane, was n expanded to include Ch, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania to improve security and stability in broer Sahel region.

Defense Minister Florence Parly said France will “very likely” reduce its 5,100 troops in Sahel region, in an interview to Le Parisien newspaper earlier this week. specific figures have been released.

Attitudes toward French mission are mixed.

“French troops could t stay forever ... so many and (with) such mixed results. In a way, this is a good thing, because it will push each country to take more responsibility,” and collaborate better, said Chrysogone Zougmore, president of Burkinabe Movement for Human Rights, a civil society group in Burkina Faso.

discussion, though, comes amid few signs that Islamic extremist violence is waning: Last weekend militants std attacks on two vills in Niger near its border with Mali, killing at least 100 people.

Siaka Coulibaly, an analyst with Burkina Faso's Center for Public Policy Monitoring by Citizens, warned of a “severe degration of security” if French leave, because African armies aren't rey to fill void. “We fear worst for countries in Sahel if foreign troops ever leave,” he said.

Next month's N'Djamena summit is set to reassess situation a year after a meeting in French town of Pau led to France sending 600 ditional troops and concentrating military efforts along porous border separating Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Parly stressed that “any reinforcement, by definition, is temporary.” French troops in 2020 “achieved important successes, by neutralizing several top leers of terrorist groups and by attacking ir logistical network to disorganize m," she ded.

Last June, Abdelmalek Droukdel, leer of al-Qaida’s rth Africa affiliate, was killed in Mali by French forces who h been hunting him in Sahel for years. AQIM named a new leer in vember.

A top official at French presidency said death of French soldiers will t in itself be basis for a strategy change. Speaking anymously in accordance with presidency’s customary practices, he ded that upcoming strategic decisions will be based on results in previous year and on Sahel countries’ demands.

intentions of newly-elected President Joe Biden regarding U.S. troops in Africa will also be a key factor in determining France's next steps.

In December, French military chief of staff, General Francois Lecointre, told Le Monde newspaper during a visit to Mali that he aimed at “limiting” number of troops re “as soon as possible.” He said France would t withdraw from Sahel but rar make its operation “evolve.”

France is also pushing to reinforce a regional five-country force launched in 2017 with support from United Nations, African Union and European Union. But so-called G5 Sahel has been slow to gain strength and is still short of equipment and training.

French military operation enjoys bro support at home. But some voices are calling for an exit plan.

Far-left party France Insoumise (Rebel France), which has 17 lawmakers at National Assembly, urged government this week to “publicly present its strategy to allow our soldiers to return with prejudice to stability of region.”

“Today, bogging down is clear, our soldiers are dying, government acts only in reaction and goals it pursues are more uncertain than ever," lawmakers' group said in a statement.