Headline

French Army To Leave Senegal Amid Africa Downsizing

Published

3 months ago

July 17, 2025

France will on Thursday formally hand back its last military bases in Senegal, leaving the French army with no permanent camps in west and central Africa.

Ending the French army’s 65 years in Senegal, the pull-out comes after similar withdrawals across the continent, with former colonies increasingly turning their backs on their former ruler.

Around 350 French soldiers, primarily tasked with conducting joint operations with the Senegalese army, will leave the west African nation after a three-month departure process. France started ceding its bases to Senegal in March.

After storming to victory in 2024 elections promising radical change, Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye demanded France withdraw troops from the country by 2025.

Unlike the leaders of other former colonies such as junta-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, however, Faye has insisted that Senegal will keep working with Paris.

In a ceremony in Dakar, France will return Camp Geille, its largest base in the country, and its airfield at Dakar airport.

Senegal’s Chief of General Staff, General Mbaye Cisse, and General Pascal Ianni, who commands France’s troops in Africa, will attend.

– ‘Sovereignty’ –

After gaining independence in 1960, Senegal became one of France’s staunchest African allies, playing host to French troops throughout its history.

Faye’s predecessor, Macky Sall, continued that tradition.

Faye, who ran on a ticket promising a clean break with the Sall era, has said that Senegal would treat France like any other foreign partner.

Pledging to make his country more self-sufficient, the president gave a deadline of the end of 2025 for all foreign armies to withdraw.

“Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” Faye said at the end of 2024, while maintaining that “France remains an important partner for Senegal”.

Faye has also urged Paris to apologise for colonial atrocities, including the massacre on December 1, 1944 of dozens of African troops who had fought for France in World War II.

– Continent-wide pull-out –

With governments across Africa increasingly questioning France’s military presence, Paris has closed or reduced numbers at bases across its former empire.

In February France handed back its sole remaining base in Ivory Coast, ending decades of French presence at the site.

The month before, France turned over the Kossei base in Chad, its last military foothold in the unrest-hit Sahel region.

Coups in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali between 2020 and 2023 have swept military strongmen to power. All have cut ties with France and turned to Russia instead for help in fighting the Sahel’s decade-long jihadist insurgency.

The Central African Republic, also a former French colony to which the Kremlin has sent mercenaries, has likewise demanded a French pull-out.

Meanwhile the army has turned its base in Gabon into a camp shared with the central African nation.

Only the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti will be home to a permanent French army base following Thursday’s withdrawal.

France intends to make its base in Djibouti, with some 1,500 people, its military headquarters for Africa.
(VANGUARD)

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP