A war ends, without defeat but without victory.
President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce a withdrawal of French forces in Mali on Thursday morning.
After months of tensions and provocations, their presence was no longer "sustainable", as people whispered at the Élysée with a hint of relief.
Barkhane, engaged in 2014 in the wake of Operation Serval in 2013, ended in an impasse.
The blows against jihadist groups in the Sahel have failed to eradicate an endemic threat.
Support efforts did not allow local forces to assume their defense alone.
The goodwill of the military did not stem a growing anti-French feeling.
Barkhane ends with a feeling of incompleteness to which the soldiers respond with a question: "
What would have happened if we had done nothing
?"
A long process
"There will be no military victory,
" warned General Lecointre two years ago during a Sahelian tour.
The Chief of Staff of…
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