Leaving the last military base in Senegal by French soldiers, which occurred in mid-July, is simply a breakthrough event. With its quota withdrawn, Paris ends its military presence not only in this West African country, but besides throughout West and Central Africa, which is simply a conventional French sphere of influence. The vacuum left behind by the French are trying to fill Russia, Turkey and China, as well as Al-Qaeda and another jihadist organizations.
Staff of the French Army and staff of the Senegalese Army before the ceremony, during which France will return the camp of Geille on 17 July 2025.
The ceremony of handing over the Camp Geille base in Dakar to the local armed forces, held on July 17, culminated in the gradual withdrawal of French troops from Senegal, which was requested by the fresh president of the country Bassirou Diomaye Faye in 2024. At the same time, the final chord has continued since the decolonization of the French patronage over the region of West Africa and the Sahel.
Starting in 2021, after a series of coups that shook the region, Paris was forced to retreat its forces from subsequent countries: from Mali in 2022, from Niger and Burkina Faso a year later, from Chad in 2024, Côte d'Ivoire in early this year and yet from Senegal. The last and only permanent French base in Africa at this point is Camp de l’Unité, located in Djibouti on the Red Sea coast. At the same time, any of these countries began a akin process in relation to the US quotas: the presence of US forces was terminated in Niger and severely limited in Chad.
Meanwhile, the region of West Africa and the Sahel is far from stable. For many years he has been torn apart by many conflicts, the most intense of which is the cross-border jihad led by the local Al-Qaeda branch: the Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wa-al-Muslimin (JNIM). It mainly operates in the alleged "Three Borders" region, i.e. the border between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, but the organization gradually increases its scope of operations and now extends from the borders of Benin and Nigeria to the east to Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Senegal, i.e. in an area of about 1 million square kilometres. At the same time, the region has a full tribe of another armed groups: from the muslim State and Boko Haram, through Tuarean rebels in northern Mali, to various militias in the Central African Republic.
The leaders of Western and Central African states, demanding the withdrawal of French troops, are not so much pursuing greater independency as alliances change and search the aid of another powers. Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso requested protection and military support for the Kremlin, which he willingly gave, seeing this as a chance to displace Western powers from the continent. However, the presence of Russian soldiers – first in the form of mercenaries with Wagner Groups, and now as a subordinate to the Ministry of Defence, the alleged African corps has besides not resolved safety and stableness problems, and sometimes it has had the other effect: the brutal repression applied by the Russians increases the support of the local population for rebel and jihadist groups, and thus the influx of volunteers and increased recruitment, which in turn translates into an increase in capacity and scope of action. The expansion of operations is causing further repression and the spiral of force is becoming more and more intense.
Some of the regional leaders so address another patrons. It is increasingly active in the region of Turkey: at the beginning of this year it took over the abandoned French bases in Chad, it besides maintains a contingent in Somalia and supports militarily 1 of the parties to the Libyan civilian War, as well as conducting alleged diplomacy drones, providing arms to African countries, with celebrated unmanned workers Bayarktar At the head.
China besides expands its presence on the continent, although they operate more subtlely than Russia, Turkey, the United States or France – but for the naval base in Djibouti they do not have permanent military installations in Africa. However, they strengthen cooperation with the countries of the region through economical cooperation, arms sales or participation in peace missions under the aegis of the UN.
At this point, it is hard to foretell the effects of all of this on global policies that alliances will appear from the chaos of the wars and coups swept through the Sahel, which the powers will grow their spheres of influence and gain the ability to task force in the region through access to African ports and military bases and who will profit from the exploitation of Sahel natural resources. However, there is no uncertainty that we are just witnessing the reconstruction of the full safety architecture of West Africa.
