France's military withdrawal from Mali is no failure, says Macron

17 February 2022 - 11:14
By Sudip Kar-Gupta
Macron said that at the time, Mali had requested France deploy troops to counter an Islamist insurgency that was headed towards the capital.
Image: Fred Marie/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images/ File photo Macron said that at the time, Mali had requested France deploy troops to counter an Islamist insurgency that was headed towards the capital.

France's military withdrawal from Mali, where it has been fighting Islamist militants since 2013, does not constitute a failure in its mission, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.

"I completely reject this term," Macron told a press conference in Paris.

Macron said that at the time, Mali had requested France deploy troops to counter an Islamist insurgency that was headed towards the capital and in doing so had prevented the state from collapsing.

Reuters