FRANCE - CHAD

A look back at France's ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the Sahel

Video by: Erin Ogunkeye

French President Emmanuel Macron is in Chad on Sunday to pay a pre-Christmas visit to French soldiers. Chad - along with neighboring countries Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali, are of strategic importance to Paris given recent partnerships aimed at fighting radical extremists based in the region. Some 900 soldiers are deployed in Chad alone as a part of Operation Barkhane, a counter-terrorism mission that has been fighting jihadists in the Sahel since 2014. FRANCE 24’s Erin Ogunkeye, Simon Harding, and Sérine Bey take a look back at French military presence in the Sahel over the past few years.