Macron praises the French military base in Djibouti as a “point of projection” for missions in Africa

MADRID Dec. 21 () –

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, visited this Saturday the French troops assigned to the French military base in Djibouti, the most important outside French soil, and highlighted its use as a “projection point” for missions in Africa instead of its traditional approach to the Indo-Pacific.

Macron has highlighted that the base will be “reinvented” as a “projection point” after the forced withdrawal of French contingents in the Sahel region following the coups d’état that have caused changes of government in several countries in the area such as Mali. , Burkina Faso and Niger and more recently with the departures of Chad or Senegal.

The French president has visited Air Base 188, which “has always been a special support”, and has participated in a Christmas dinner with the military, reports the French radio station RFI.

Until now the base was more focused on the Indian Ocean and the Pacific than on Africa, which will change from now on, as Macron explained. “It will also have to reinvent itself as a projection point for some of our African missions,” he declared.

“I also want to highlight here what has been achieved (…) in restructuring our approach on the African continent. Our role in Africa is changing, but that is what we wanted because the world is changing in Africa. Because opinion public is changing. Because governments are changing. And because in February 2023, after years of gradual change, we sovereignly decide to rebuild our relationship with our respected partners,” he argued.

Macron has also referred to the situation in Mayotte, where there are almost 900 soldiers deployed after the passage of cyclone ‘Chido’, and after the independence protests. “Yes. Our overseas territories are changing and you play a fundamental role in that sense,” he noted.

In Djibouti there are about 1,500 French soldiers in a destination that is the only one that is saved from the historic reduction of French military forces in the area. In fact, France and Djibouti renewed their Defense Cooperation Treaty in July.

Macron plans to travel this Saturday to Addis Ababa to meet with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, where they could address the increase in repression in the country.