President Emmanuel Macron’s newly-appointed personal envoy to Africa spoke on Wednesday of a “remodel” for France’s military presence in Ivory Coast, on his first trip to the continent since being appointed.
Jean-Marie Bockel was tasked early this month with discussing with Paris’ African partners new forms for a French military presence on their soil.
Macron has long trailed a new relationship with Africa and multiple sources have told AFP that France plans to reduce significantly its troop numbers in former African colonies.
French troops engaged in anti-terror operations have already been forced to quit Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger following military coups over the last few years.
Bockel has been tasked with “explaining” to other key nations “the reasons for and methods of the adjustments” to be made in French deployments, according to a letter from Macron seen by AFP.
“The term remodel seems to me to be the right one,” Bockel said in the Ivorian economic capital Abidjan.
“We come with proposals in the spirit of listening and then having dialogue, which results in a winning agreement for both parties,” he added, following a one-hour “rich exchange” with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara.
Some 900 French troops are deployed in Ivory Coast, one of France’s closest allies in West Africa.
“There will be developments, the imprint will be less in some aspects and stronger in others,” Bockel said, without giving details.
The other countries concerned by the potential adjustments are Senegal, Gabon and Chad.
Bockel is due to present his recommendations to the president in July.