DJIBOUTI: French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday its military base in Djibouti could assume a greater role, speaking after Paris was forced to pull troops out of several other African countries.
“Our role is changing in Africa because the world is changing in Africa, because public opinion is changing, because governments are changing,” he said.
Macron was addressing French forces stationed at the strategic Horn of Africa nation before sitting down for a Christmas meal with the troops, a regular feature on the presidential calendar.
France had to change its past logic of having too many military bases in Africa, he said.
In recent years, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all three under military rule, have told France to get its troops out.
They have turned instead to Russia for military support in their fight against the jihadist forces active in the region.
And on Friday, France also began withdrawing ground troops from Chad, after N’Djamena last month abruptly ended military cooperation with the former colonial power.
The central African country was the last Sahel nation to host French troops.
Its decision also came shortly after Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye told AFP in an interview that France should close its military bases there.
Djibouti has in the past been part of France’s Indo-Pacific strategy, contributing to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
“It is also, and will also have to be reinvented as, a projection point for some of our African missions,” Macron said, without elaborating.
The French base at Djibouti currently hosts 1,500 soldiers.
That makes it France’s largest military contingent abroad and the only one untouched by the military draw-down African nations have imposed on Paris.
In July, Djibouti and France renewed their defense cooperation treaty.
As well as paying rent for the base, France also assumes responsibility for patrolling the airspace over the country.
The small east African state is a relative haven of stability. On the other side of the Red Sea lies Yemen, gripped in a devastating civil war.
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Macron sees new role for French military base in Djibouti
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Macron sees new role for French military base in Djibouti
- Macron was speaking after France was forced to pull troops out of several other African countries
More than 150 Palestinians were held on a plane for around 12 hours in South Africa
JOHANNESBURG: South African authorities faced heavy criticism Friday after they held more than 150 Palestinians, including a woman who is nine months pregnant, on a plane for around 12 hours due to complications with their travel documents.
A pastor who was allowed to meet with the passengers while they were still stuck on the plane said it was very extremely and that children were screaming and crying.
The Palestinians landed on a charter plane at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, South Africa’s Border Management Authority said in a statement.
The Palestinian passengers did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities, did not indicate how long they would be staying in South Africa and had not given local addresses, leading immigration authorities to deny them entry, the statement said.
The 153 passengers including families and children were allowed to leave the plane on Thursday night after South Africa’s Ministry of Home Affairs intervened and a local non-governmental organization called Gift of the Givers offered to accommodate them. The Border Management Authority said 23 passengers had since traveled on to other countries, leaving 130 in South Africa.
Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the last two weeks and that the passengers themselves did not know where they were going. He said both planes were believed to be carrying people from war-torn Gaza.
It was not immediately clear who organized the charter plane.
A South African pastor who was given access to the plane while it was on the tarmac told national broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now intended to claim asylum in South Africa.
South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and the treatment of the travelers has sparked anger.
“It’s dire,” Nigel Branken, the pastor, said in an interview with SABC on Thursday from the plane as he described the conditions. “When I came onto the plane it was excruciatingly hot. There were lots of children just sweating and screaming and crying.”
“I do not believe this is what South Africa is about. South Africa should be letting these people into the airport at the very least and letting them apply for asylum. This is their basic fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution.”
A pastor who was allowed to meet with the passengers while they were still stuck on the plane said it was very extremely and that children were screaming and crying.
The Palestinians landed on a charter plane at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport on Thursday morning after a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, South Africa’s Border Management Authority said in a statement.
The Palestinian passengers did not have exit stamps from Israeli authorities, did not indicate how long they would be staying in South Africa and had not given local addresses, leading immigration authorities to deny them entry, the statement said.
The 153 passengers including families and children were allowed to leave the plane on Thursday night after South Africa’s Ministry of Home Affairs intervened and a local non-governmental organization called Gift of the Givers offered to accommodate them. The Border Management Authority said 23 passengers had since traveled on to other countries, leaving 130 in South Africa.
Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman said it was the second plane carrying Palestinians to land in South Africa in the last two weeks and that the passengers themselves did not know where they were going. He said both planes were believed to be carrying people from war-torn Gaza.
It was not immediately clear who organized the charter plane.
A South African pastor who was given access to the plane while it was on the tarmac told national broadcaster SABC that many of the Palestinians now intended to claim asylum in South Africa.
South Africa has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and the treatment of the travelers has sparked anger.
“It’s dire,” Nigel Branken, the pastor, said in an interview with SABC on Thursday from the plane as he described the conditions. “When I came onto the plane it was excruciatingly hot. There were lots of children just sweating and screaming and crying.”
“I do not believe this is what South Africa is about. South Africa should be letting these people into the airport at the very least and letting them apply for asylum. This is their basic fundamental right guaranteed in our constitution.”
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