On the eve of Bastille Day and the traditional military parade down the Champs-Elysées, French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to reshape the country’s armies.
Macron said at a reception with the army’s high command on Wednesday that he wanted to change the structure, procedures, and chain of command by the first half of 2023.
Following France’s ongoing withdrawal from Mali, the operational overhaul is expected to have a significant impact on the country’s involvement in the Sahel region.
“It’s a strategic necessity because we need less entrenched and exposed deployments to build a lasting and closer cooperation with African armies and rebuild our training capabilities,” Macron told a gathering of ministers and senior officers.
The Mali deployment has been fraught with problems for France. Out of the 53 French soldiers killed serving in West Africa, 48 of them died in Mali. Also, recent coups in Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso have weakened French alliances and emboldened jihadists who control large swathes of the region.
France is celebrating its national holiday, Thursday, July 14, with thousands of French and allied troops expected to march down the Champs-Elysées.
Soldiers from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary are to take part in the parade in a show of unity between European allies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
