French President, Emmanuel Macron, has criticized Sahel leaders for not appreciating the deployment of his nation’s troops in the region in battling Islamist extremism.
Macron spoke on Monday at an annual conference on foreign policy for 2025.
According to him, “We had a relationship based on security, it was in fact two-fold. On one hand, it was our engagement against terrorism since 2013. We were right, I think someone forgot to say thank you. It’s okay it will come with time.
Ungratefulness, I know too well is a disease that cannot be transmitted to men but I say this for all African heads of states who have not had courage in the face of public opinion.
None of them would be a sovereign country today if the French army wasn’t deployed in the region and my heart goes out to all of our soldiers, some of them whom have given their lives and fought for years.
We did the right thing. We left because there were coup De’tats. We were there at the request of sovereign states who asked France to come.
From the moments there were coup d’etats and the people said their aims were no longer fighting terrorism, if it was not this or that, France longer belonged there.”
