Operation Sabre
Operation Sabre, French intervention in northern Mali, was an ongoing contribution to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali. The French Army mobilised around 280 GFS (Groupement des Forces Speciales) personnel - more than 300 when navy and air force personnel were included - in Operation Sabre in the Sahel, and fewer than one hundred in Operation Chammal in Syria and Iraq. French special forces from Operation Sabre were deployed in support of Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, with the objective to track down terrorists,
In the Sahel, there was the PC of “Operation Sabre” installed near Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso. Since 2009, 350 to 400 special forces soldiers had been stationed there. Most of the jihadist leaders eliminated in recent years were eliminated as part of operations carried out by this unit. The Sabre force, purely tricolor (unlike the Takuba force ), is made up of elite French commandos from the three armies and multiplies night raids to track down and target terrorists.
Operation Sabre was conducted by French special forces with the utmost discretion in the Sahel. Their goal was to seek out and intercept jihadists and prevent them from building sanctuaries. The patrols were at the forefront of counterterrorism operations because they allow forces to detect and go deep into the depths of enemies who were increasingly difficult to catch. On the ground, the hunt for the jihadists was therefore organized according to the information gathered. Everything can change quickly because the chain of command from Paris is short and the commandos are very flexible. Thus, an operation can be prepared for weeks or launched within the hour.
Between October and December 2021, French forces withdrew from Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu. In early January 2022, Russian army instructors and mercenaries from the Wagner Group settled in the military base in Timbuktu.
After nine years of anti-jihadist struggle, in which it finally managed to involve European partners, in February 2022 France announced a redefinition of Operation Barkhane in the Sahel. Pressured by the Malian junta to leave the country, Paris was counting on its allies in the region, notably Niger and Chad, in order to continue its fight against the jihadist insurrection. Half of the 4,800 French soldiers deployed as part of this operation are stationed in Mali and are expected to leave the country soon. "France is readjusting, in consultation with its partners, its system in the Sahel to remain alongside the countries engaged in the fight against terrorism," the spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs also recalled.
Against a backdrop of growing anti-French sentiment in the Sahel , and following the expulsion of the French ambassador to Bamako on January 31, Paris announced that it would "work by mid-February" on adapting its military presence in the region and will likely confirm its forced military withdrawal from Mali. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, stated: "If the conditions are no longer met, which is clearly the case, for us to be able to act in Mali, we will continue to fight terrorism alongside the countries of the Sahel, which are very keen to do so."
Burkina Faso hosted a contingent of nearly 400 French special forces , the Sabre force. In January 2023, Burkina Faso requested the departure of French troops from its soil within a month, while French President Emmanuel Macron said he was waiting for "clarifications" from Ouagadougou in this new episode of tensions between the two countries. In a letter from the Burkinabe Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressed to Paris and dated 23 January 2023, Ouagadougou "denounces and terminates in its entirety the agreement" of December 17, 2018 "relating to the status of the French armed forces intervening" in the Sahelian country.
"At the current stage we do not see how to make it clearer than that," the spokesperson for the Burkina Faso government Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo said. For him, this request for the departure of French forces "is not linked to a particular event.... It is linked to the desire today of the transitional authorities and of all Burkinabe people to be the primary actors in the reconquest of our territory".
France, the former colonial power, had been contested in Burkina Faso for several months. In December 2022, the Burkinabe authorities asked Paris to replace the French ambassador in Ouagadougou, Luc Hallade, who was in their sights, in particular for having reported on the deterioration of the security situation in the country. Several demonstrations also took place in Ouagadougou to demand in particular the withdrawal of French forces from the country.
Since coming to power in September 2023 following a coup, the second in eight months, Captain Traoré and his government have demonstrated their desire to diversify their partnerships, particularly in the fight against jihadism, which has been undermining the country since 2015. Among the new partners considered by Ouagadougou, the question of a possible rapprochement with Russia is regularly raised. "Russia is a reasonable choice in this dynamic", and "we believe that our partnership must be strengthened", stressed the Burkinabe Prime Minister, Apollinaire Kyélem de Tembela, at the end of a meeting with the Russian ambassador, Alexey Saltykov. At the beginning of December 2022, he had made a discreet visit to Moscow.
On 10 January 2023, Paris sent Secretary of State Chrysoula Zacharopoulou to meet with the transitional president. "France does not impose anything, it is available to invent a future together," she insisted, assuring that she did not want to "influence any choice or decision, no one can dictate their choices in Burkina."
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