President Mahamat Idriss Deby on Friday welcomed the “definitive and complete departure” of French forces from Chad which marks the end of France’s last foothold in the wider jihadist-hit Sahel region.
After a closed-door military ceremony a day earlier, Deby addressed Chadian forces and diplomats at an event in the capital N’Djamena.
The handover of the Kossei base, the French army’s last such facility in the central African country, follows Chad’s surprise breaking off of military cooperation with its former colonial ruler in late November.
“We are not breaking off our relationship with France but we are ending the military dimension of this cooperation,” Deby said at the base where only the Chadian flag was now flying.
Chad must build an “even stronger, better equipped army” and “forge new alliances based on mutual respect and without losing sight of the demands of…
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