Chad announced on Saturday that it had halved the number of troops deployed in February to the G5 Sahel anti-jihadist force in the “tri-border area” bordering Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, citing “a strategic redeployment.
“We have redeployed 600 men to Chad in agreement with the G5 Sahel forces. This is a strategic redeployment to best adapt to the organization of terrorists,” said Abderahman Koulamallah, government spokesman.
A contingent of 1,200 Chadian soldiers had been deployed to the area to fight jihadist groups as part of the G5 Sahel multinational force, a group of five Sahelian countries – Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso – that have been working since 2017 to cooperate in the fight.
France, which is heavily involved in the fight against jihadism in the region, recently announced the gradual reduction of its military forces in the Sahel to a smaller force of 2,500 to 3,000 men, compared to the 5,000 or so that made up the Barkhane force, which is due to disappear.