Mahamat Idriss Déby was at the Elysée on Wednesday. President Emmanuel Macron and the interim 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,” the French presidency said. “The meeting also allowed the two presidents to discuss the continuation of the political transition in Chad,” she added.
The logistical challenges of withdrawing from Niger
After a coup in July, the French army was forced to leave Niger and evacuate 1,400 men and their equipment mainly through Chad. The soldiers will fly from N’Djamena to France, while the equipment convoys will reach the port of Douala in Cameroon and pass through areas where jihadist groups are seeking refuge.
Emmanuel Macron said at the end of September that French troops would leave Niger “by the end of the year.” However, due to the logistical challenges that this withdrawal entails, experts expect it to take around six months and the equivalent of 2,000 containers to be returned.
War broke out in Sudan on April 15 between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army and General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Libya, for its part, has been mired in a severe political crisis since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, undermined by divisions between East and West and foreign interference.
A longer transition in Chad
On April 20, 2021, immediately after the announcement of the death of President Idriss Déby Itno, killed on the front lines by rebels after ruling Chad with an iron fist for thirty years, a junta of 15 generals appointed his son general Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, President for an interim period of 18 months before the elections. But 18 months later, in October 2022, he extended it for two years, citing the decision of a National Reconciliation Dialogue that was boycotted by the vast majority of the opposition and the most powerful armed rebel groups.