French armoured vehicles on the road to Gao via the Niger border (Picture: AP)

French troops could leave Mali next month if current operations proceed as planned, Francois Hollande has said.

The country’s president told a cabinet meeting that ‘by the end of March the number of French troops engaged in Mali can begin to diminish’.

A spokeswoman later clarified any withdrawal was contingent on the deployment of African troops from neighbouring countries.

Ministers have warned, however, that there was still fighting taking place.


The country’s defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe-1 radio: ‘It’s a real war… when we go outside of the centre of cities that have been taken, we meet residual jihadists.’

French president Francois Hollande (Picture: Reuters)

Mr Hollande ordered troops into the north-west African country, a former French colony, last month when Islamist extremists began venturing towards the capital Bamako.



Militants seized Mali’s vast desert north, itself the size of France, last year following an unrelated coup in the capital.

Secular Tuareg rebels had initially seized on the chaos to stake their claim for an independent state, but they were subsequently driven out by Islamist fighters who they had allied with.

Britain has provided logistical support to French troops in Mali, while several hundred personnel will be deployed overall to help with training missions.

France’s intervention coincided with the Algerian hostage crisis, in which six Britons died, with gunmen saying their actions were a direct response to western interventions in Mali.