While France country changes its system in West Africa in response to neighboring Burkina Faso’s proposal to withdraw French troops and commit to quelling a rising Islamist insurgency on its own, the defense minister of France vowed on Monday to provide military assistance to Ivory Coast.
The Sahel region’s struggle with Islamist organizations affiliated with al Qaeda and the Islamic State enters a new phase with Burkina Faso’s announcement on Sunday that France’s military operations on its territory have officially come to an end.
In Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, the two terrorist organizations have seized vast tracts of land and driven millions of people from their homes.
It is unclear how the Burkinabe government intends to compensate for the departure of some 400 French special forces from its region, which suffered the largest number of Islamic attacks in the Sahel last year with about 3,600 people murdered, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Research (ACSS).