Ahmad 
An envoy to French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will keep its troops in Chad, which is ruled by a military council. Despite its withdrawal from other countries in Africa against the backdrop of increasing voices rejecting its presence.
Jean-Marie Bouckel, Macron’s envoy to Africa, tasked with discussing France’s new military deployment on the continent, said “of course we will stay” in Chad. He said after meeting with its military governor, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, that Macron had asked for talks with Chadian authorities on the “evolution” of France’s military deployment to “better adapt it” to regional security and military challenges.
About a thousand French soldiers have been stationed in Chad, which has been ruled by young General Itno, since 2021 after his father Idriss was killed during clashes with rebels in the north of the country, amid continuous French support for his regime in an attempt to maintain a military presence in the African Sahel amid dwindling French allies in the region.
France’s influence in its former West African colonies has steadily declined, with demonstrations rejecting the French presence and military commanders fighting jihadist factions in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. by expelling its troops and strengthening their relations with Russia.
Chad is France’s last major partner in the Sahel, having forcibly withdrawn French soldiers from Mali in 2022, Burkina Faso in February 2023 and Niger last December.