Published on: 04/19/2022 – 15:48 Two months after the announcement of the French military withdrawal from Mali after nine years of anti-jihadist struggle led by Paris, the keys to the Gossi base, in the north of the country, were handed over to the Malian armed forces. The French army officially handed over to the Malian armed forces (FAMa) on Tuesday (April 19th) the keys to the Gossi base in northern Mali, a major step in the departure of the Barkhane anti-jihadist force from the country, the state said. “The transfer of the advanced base of Gossi has been effective since the end of the morning”, indicated the spokesman for the staff, Colonel Pascal Ianni, specifying that the base accommodated 300 French soldiers. move represented some 400 containers. The post “has been restored as it is with all the defensive devices, all the equipment (…) as well as barracks infrastructure. We have not made a clean sweep”, he added during the meeting. ‘a press briefing. Barkhane in the Sahel, France’s current largest external operation, mobilized up to 5,500 men on the ground in 2020 and began its transformation last summer on the decision of Emmanuel Macron, who planned to reduce this number to 2,500 or 3,000 by 2023.The French president then decided in February on a total military withdrawal from Mali, in a degraded security context and a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Bamako, where a military junta seized power.”Malians are sovereign”Colonel Ianni said on Tuesday that a “documented” inventory had been drawn up of the Gossi base, in particular to protect France from possible accusations in the months to come. An allusion to the anti-French sentiment that has gained ground in recent months in the region and has led to France being the subject of smear campaigns on social networks. “Malians are sovereign. We have done our job correctly and do not cannot be attacked in a dishonest manner,” said Colonel Ianni. for several months according to Westerners. Bamako for its part evokes simple Russian advisers. “The Malians are free to do what they wish”, insisted the spokesman. Some 4,600 French soldiers are currently deployed in the Sahel, including 2,500 in Mali, figures which should change little before the end of the reorganization of the system and the retrocession of the rights-of-way of Ménaka and Gao, according to the spokesperson. : Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu, from the end of August to December. Paris has since reaffirmed several times that it does not intend to cease its fight against the jihadists who rage in the region and wishes to work with the neighboring countries of the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa, where the jihadists threaten to spread. With AFP