President of Senegal: The presence of French military bases in our country is incompatible with our national sovereignty – Mehr News Agency RCO News Agency

According to the report of Mehr News Agency, quoted by Russia Daily, the President of Senegal, Basiro Dumai Fay, considered the presence of French military bases in the country to be in conflict with the country’s national sovereignty.

He added: Senegal is an independent and sovereign country, and national sovereignty is incompatible with the presence of foreign military bases, and the French authorities should seek to establish a partnership apart from this military presence. But a strong and fruitful, clear and comprehensive partnership similar to what we have with many other countries.

The President of Senegal stated: The presence or absence of the military does not mean breaking relations. Our country has strong relations with many countries, including China, Türkiye, America and Saudi Arabia, and all these countries do not have military bases in Senegal.

He said: Today, China is our first business partner in terms of investment and trade. Does China have a military base in Senegal? No, so is our relationship broken?

The President of Senegal further pointed to Paris’s acknowledgment of responsibility for the massacre of the country’s colonial forces in Thiaruri near Dakar on December 1, 1944, which was announced to him in a letter from Emmanuel Macron, and expressed his satisfaction and welcomed this position. considered an important step by Macron.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chad announced a few hours ago: the time has come for Chad to fully exercise its sovereignty after more than 6 decades of independence.

The ministry added: canceling the defense and security agreements with France is an action aimed at emphasizing national sovereignty and does not harm relations with Paris.

64 years have passed since the end of French colonialism in Chad, but in recent years, the deployment of French forces in this Central African country of 30 million people, especially in the last four years, has led to strong reactions from opponents of the French military presence, and these oppositions are still ongoing.

France currently has 600 troops in Ivory Coast. France also has 1,000 troops in Chad in northern Central Africa.

Until two years ago, France had more than 5,000 troops in the Sahel region of Africa as part of an operation to fight against organizations it considers to be terrorists, but it has gradually withdrawn its forces at the request of the armies that in 2021 in Mali, in 2022 in Burkina Faso and came to power in Niger in 2023.