France in Africa: Troops withdrawn, financial controls remain
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Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop called June 16 for the immediate withdrawal of the United Nations mission in Mali (MINUSMA), which numbers just over 15,000 personnel. “Unfortunately, MINUSMA seems to have become part of the problem by fueling intercommunal tensions,” Diop told the 15-m

After a military coup in May 2021 that enjoyed widespread popular support, France began to withdraw all its troops from Mali — nearly 8,000 at the height of its involvement. By August 2022 they were all withdrawn.

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The new cooperative agreements allow French banking representatives to be brought back. Removing the deposit requirement takes pressure off the French banks to offer a fair interest rate on the deposits. French control is less obvious but still exists.

According to Ndongo Samba Sylla, a Senegalese development economist at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s West Africa Office in Dakar, Senegal, “France is facing more and more pressure in Africa, militarily speaking, because people oppose its interventions, and as we see in Sénégal, economically speaking as well.”