French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the African Sahel states forgot to thank France for preventing their nations from falling under the control of militants.
Macron stated that France had a relationship with its former colonies based on security.
In a video obtained by Newspot from the BBC X handle on Monday, the French President said that French soldiers were in the West African countries in the first place at their request.
The statement comes after French forces began withdrawing from Ivory Coast starting in January.
French forces had earlier withdrawn from Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Niger Republic.
French soldiers were asked to withdraw from Mali, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and the Benin Republic.
Macron said: “We had a relationship based on security. It was, in fact, two-fold: on one hand, it was our engagement against terrorism since 2013. We were right. I think someone forgot to say thank you. It’s okay; it will come with time. Ungratefulness, I know too well, is a disease that can’t be transmitted to man, but I say this is for all African heads of state who have not had the courage, in the face of public opinion, to hold that view. None of them would be a sovereign state today if the French army hadn’t deployed in the region. My heart goes out to all our soldiers, some of whom have given their lives and fought for years. We did the right thing. We left because there were coups d’etat, because we were there at the request of the sovereign states who asked France to come. From the moment there were coups d’etat and people said their priority was no longer fighting terrorism, it’s this or that—it doesn’t matter—France no longer belonged there because we are not at the beck and call of coup leaders. So we left.”
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