"We have to stay, and of course we will," said Jean-Marie Bockel, Emmanuel Macron's "personal envoy," on March 7, after a meeting with Chad's transitional president, Mahamat Idriss Déby. He was promoted by a group of generals into the position of his father, Idriss Déby, who was killed in 2021 after three decades in power, during which he was supported by France. On Monday, May 6, the heir will attempt to use the ballot box to legitimize a power acquired outside any constitutional framework. The transparency of the election has already been challenged by his main rival and prime minister, Succès Masra, who believes that "the place of the French army is in France."
Can Paris afford to maintain its military presence in Chad at a time when its soldiers have been successively driven out of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, and when rejection of its foreign policy continues to grow on a continent swept by a wind of sovereignism?
That this break-up is so delicate to contemplate, is partly because the French-Chadian military relationship has a long history of codependence. The country and its "desert warriors" hold a special place in the mind of the French army, which has been present there almost continuously for over a century.
From 'Limousin' to 'Epervier'
The first colony to join Free France on August 26, 1940, Chad remained partly administered by the French army until 1965, five years after the country's independence. Since then, the "aircraft carrier of the desert" – as it was nicknamed because of its strategic position enabling Paris to launch its troops into the region – holds the record for the greatest number of French overseas operations.
From Operation Limousin (1969-1971), to protect President François Tombalbaye against rebel factions from Sudan, to Operation Epervier (1986-2014), against the invasion of Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan troops, the French army successively brought Hissène Habré to power in 1982 [sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 for crimes against humanity committed during his presidency, until 1990]. It then supported the overthrow of Habré by Idriss Déby eight years later, and bombarded the rebel columns that threatened Déby's power in 2019. For its part, Chad sent its troops to the front line when France became involved in the Sahel against jihadists in 2013.
Some 1,000 French soldiers are still stationed at the N'Djamena air base, from where Mirage fighter jets take off every day, providing the regime with valuable intelligence on rebel movements on the fringes of the territory.
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