Overview

• On July 17, 2025, France officially returned Camp Geille and the Dakar airport military base to Senegal, ending its last permanent deployment in West and Central Africa.
• The withdrawal marked the dissolution of the Éléments Français au Sénégal, which comprised about 350 personnel focused on partnership training with the Senegalese Armed Forces.
• President Bassirou Diomaye Faye fulfilled his campaign promise by overseeing the transfer of French installations after several sites had been handed over since March.
• Since 2022, Paris has ended permanent deployments in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire and Gabon, converting those footprints into shared or training-focused camps.
• France now maintains a single permanent base in Djibouti with roughly 1,500 troops, designating it as its main projection point for African operations.