Emmanuel Macron will hold Thursday, February 17 in the morning at the Elysée, possibly with other leaders, a press conference to "
report on his exchanges
" with the twenty European and African leaders he invited Wednesday evening to discuss the future of their military presence in the Sahel and in particular in Mali, indicated the Elysée.
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The French presidency did not specify whether other leaders would take part in this press conference, or which ones.
The French president invited his partners before an expected announcement of a military withdrawal of French and European forces from Mali, where France still has around 2,400 troops as part of Operation Barkhane.
French soldiers have been in Mali for nine years, since the military intervention against the jihadists in 2013, but their departure was made inevitable by France's abysmal relations with the ruling junta in Bamako.
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Wednesday evening's meeting, which is being held on the eve of a European Union/African Union summit in Brussels, should endorse the withdrawal of French and European troops from Mali and a regional redeployment to continue the fight against terrorism in the Sahel.