Macron Issues Stern Rebuke to West Africa after Mali Deaths

(Bloomberg) --

President Emmanuel Macron summoned West African leaders to France for talks following the deaths of 13 French soldiers in Mali last week, and suggested that he could pull his troops out of the country if he doesn't like what he hears.

“I can't, nor do I want French soldiers on the ground while there is anti-French sentiment that is sometimes held by the leaders” of some of the African countries, Macron said at a news conference during a NATO summit in Watford, England.

The leaders of five West African nations -- Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad -- should come to France on Dec. 16 to “provide clarifications,” he added.

The soldiers died on Nov. 26 when the two helicopters they were traveling in collided at nightfall, just as they were swooping into support troops battling Islamist militants. It was one the worst losses of life in France's military in more than three decades.

France has thousands of troops fighting extremists and hunting down their commanders in the western Sahel in an operation known as Barkhane -- it's France's largest overseas, with a budget of about 600 million euros ($665 million) a year.

Yet violence by al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants is growing and spreading across borders, and with mounting deaths, anti-French sentiment is surging. So much so that while the French were once hailed as liberators in the country, these days Malians want them gone.

Read more: French Flag Burns in Mali As Islamists Overrun Frazzled Army

“They owe us clarity, for them who ask us to be there and that they assume it,” Macron said. “We are not there out of some colonial or business interest.”

Asked if he would withdraw troops, Macron said that he'd “draw consequences” from talks with the African leaders. “I need clarifications to maintain my troops there.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Flavia Krause-Jackson, Caroline Alexander

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.