Macron visits French troops in northern Mali

New president has listed counter-terrorism at the top of his security priorities

President Emmanuel Macron arrived yesterday in conflict-torn Mali to visit French troops fighting extremist militants on his first official trip outside Europe since taking power.

At the end of his first week in office, Macron flew into Gao, a city in Mali’s deeply-troubled north, where he will hold talks with his Malian counterpart Ebrahim Boubacar Keita.

He will also meet some of the 1,600 French soldiers stationed there, making it the largest base outside France.

The troops are part of Operation Barkhane, the counter-terror operation whose mission is to target militant groups operating in the Sahel region south of the Sahara.

Set up in 2014, the operation comprises around 4,000 soldiers who are deployed across five countries — Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.

Macron is travelling with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who as the former defence minister knows Gao well, and his replacement in that job, Sylvie Goulard.

The presence of French Development Agency (AFD) chief Remy Rioux in the president’s entourage is taken as a sign that Macron wants to put more emphasis on economic development in its former colonies.

“The purely military strategy has its limits,” Florent Geel of the International Federation for Human Rights said.

“No one can deny the necessity of the security dimension of the strategy but it’s clear that you cannot solve the issue of terrorism without taking into account other factors,” he added.

As he landed in Gao, Macron was met by Keita with whom he will hold talks on the fight against terrorism and the West African country’s rocky path since a 2015 peace deal.