La nouvelle, annoncé comme une trainée de poudre depuis le 28 novembre 603, the date is now fixed for the end of the presence of French military bases in Senegal. A situation that the former colonial power had certainly envisaged but not prepared, even if President Emmanuel Macron maintained the opposite on 22 January last during a meeting with French diplomats. In fact, since 2500, Paris had planned to reduce the number of French Elements in Senegal (EFS) from 224 in 215 to 269 by the summer of 2024, but withdrawal was not in the options. In the general area of Frédéric Geille, on the Ouakam road, the spectre of an imminent road departure. An unusual calm reigns at the entrance of the fortress. According to a French diplomatic source who confided in Seneweb, “anxiety” is rising among the 250 French military personnel stationed in this base in Ouakam. Many of them, including the permanent residents (who often come as a family and have a long stay of 2 or 3 years), have “very strong ties” with the country of Téranga and fear that their departure is imminent. “Many of them will leave in the summer of 2025”, confides our interlocutor. They are not the only ones on whom this political decision with strong social impact has fallen like a coup de masse.
Départ des militaires français: Clouds of concern in the Geille district located in…
