Mahamat Idriss Déby was at the Elysée on Wednesday. Presidents Emmanuel Macron and transitional presidents in Chad took stock of the regional crises and the withdrawal of French forces from Niger.
They discussed “all regional issues, including Sudan, Libya and Niger as well as the return of our military assets to France,” said the French presidency. “The meeting also allowed the two presidents to discuss the continuation of the political transition in Chad,” she added.
The logistical challenges of the withdrawal from Niger
Forced to leave Niger after a putsch in July, the French army had to evacuate 1,400 men and their equipment, mainly via Chad. The soldiers will fly to France from N’Djamena while the convoys of equipment will reach the port of Douala, in Cameroon, crossing areas sheltering jihadist groups.
Emmanuel Macron declared at the end of September that French troops would have left Niger “by the end of the year”. However, experts envisage a duration of around six months due to the logistical challenges posed by this withdrawal, with the equivalent of 2,000 containers to be repatriated.
In Sudan, war broke out on April 15 between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo. Libya, for its part, has been in the grip of a major political crisis since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, undermined by divisions between East and West and by foreign interference.
A prolonged transition in Chad
On April 20, 2021, immediately after the announcement of the death of President Idriss Déby Itno, killed at the front by rebels after having ruled Chad with an iron fist for thirty years, a junta of 15 generals proclaimed his son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, president for a transition period of 18 months before elections. But, 18 months later, in October 2022, he extended it for two years, invoking the decision of a National Reconciliation Dialogue boycotted by the vast majority of the opposition and the most powerful armed rebel groups.