Macron wants to pull troops out of Africa

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to reduce the number of French troops fighting in west Africa, amid frustration over the failure of Mali and its neighbours to impose control of territories retaken from jihadist fighters at the cost of French lives.

Macron is due to set out what he has called an ‘‘adjustment’’ to France’s 5000-strong contingent during a two-day summit that opened yesterday in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena.

Chad is one of the five Sahel region nations involved in the conflict, along with Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, attending the summit.

With 500 more troops, the beefed-up French force in Operation Barkhane has achieved tactical successes, clearing wide tracts of land in the vast and inhospitable Sahel. It has targeted and killed important leaders of the Islamist forces, including Abdelmalek Droukdel, head of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The successes are attributed to aggressive helicopter-borne operations by special forces, and to air strikes with precision missiles, drawing on electronic and drone video surveillance.

The presence of a small,

400-strong European task force has only helped marginally, the French say, and French losses have continued.

More than 50 French soldiers have been killed since thenpresident Francois Hollande sent in the forces in 2013, after Islamists overran a large swathe of northern Mali. Five have been killed in the past two months.

As misgivings grow over the cost in money and lives, France is increasingly angered by a failure by the so-called Sahel Five states to consolidate its military advances by restoring their rule on the reclaimed territories.

In the absence of civil authorities in parts of northern Mali, and schools and hospitals closed, the jihadists are setting up their own administration in some areas.

French Foreign Minister JeanYves Le Drian told parliament last week that the N’Djamena summit must see a ‘‘diplomatic and political surge to consolidate the results of the past months’’.

In 2017, the Sahel Five countries promised to create a

5000-strong pooled military force, but it remains ineffective because of a lack of funds, poor equipment, and inadequate training.