We are imminently expecting a press conference with French President Macron and EU Council President Michel announcing a French pullout from #Mali.
The big question: will the EU #Takuba mission end as well? How will EU engagement continue? We're waiting for the details.
The #Mali pullout announcement is coming just hours before the start of the #EUAfrica Summit in Brussels.
Mali is not on the agenda, but given this morning's dramatic announcement, the implications of this withdrawal will certainly be discussed on the sidelines. #EUAUsummit
The press conference has just begun. Macron is taking quite a while to get to the actual withdrawal announcement.
Now official: France will end its nine-year mission in #Mali and move troops to neighboring Niger.
The EU #Takuba taskforce will agree by June plans to leave Mali and move elsewhere in the region (Niger and Gulf of Guinea).
The EU countries that were convinced to join this French effort in 2020, "expressed their desire to remain engaged in the region, in accordance with their respective constitutional procedures" the statement says.
"The center of any successful initiative must be the primacy of the armed forces of the region," says Ghana's president.
"What French and other European nations can bring as assistance has to be assistance to *our forces*"
He says all West Africa vulnerable to terrorist groups.
"It cannot be that, having been chased out of the Middle East and Afghanistans, the terrorists find permanent home in West Africa," says Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.
European Council President @CharlesMichel insists that the EU countries will remain engaged in West Africa, but he's not very specific on how.
The reality is this will be a national decision for each of the EU countries that participated in #Takuba.
Asked by a reporter if this is a French failure that will embolden terrorists in the region, Macon says he refuses to accept this characterisation - the situation changed.
"France intervened in Mali to fight against terrorism and at the request of sovereign states in the region"
"The battle can only be won if the states themselves participate in the struggle," says Macron. "The government now in charge of #Mali is no longer setting the fight against terrorism as a priority"
"A foreign army cannot be used as a substitute for a national army."
Assalama Dawalack Sidi from @oxfamgb disagrees with Macron and says the #Mali withdrawal is "a terrible admission of failure".
"After almost ten years of military operations, nothing has really been resolved and much of the Central #Sahel continues to be plagued by conflict."
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