Chad's foreign affairs minister on Monday, January 6, accused French President Emmanuel Macron of showing contempt after he said African leaders had "forgotten to say thank you" to France for helping to combat jihadist insurgencies in the Sahel.
"The government of the Republic of Chad expresses its deep concern following the remarks made recently by the president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, which reflect a contemptuous attitude towards Africa and Africans," Abderaman Koulamallah said in a statement read on state television.
Chad's top diplomat said that he had "no problem" with France but that French leaders "had to learn to respect Africans." Koulamallah noted the "key role" played by Africa and Chad in the liberation of France during two world wars, which "France has never truly recognized."
He also said that France's contribution to Chad during its long presence in the country "has often been limited to its own strategic interests, without any real lasting impact for the development of the Chadian people."
At the end of November, Chad, which hosted Paris's last military bases in the Sahel, ended the defense and security agreements that linked it with the former colonial power, saying they were "obsolete."
Around a thousand French military personnel were stationed there, and are in the process of being withdrawn.
Macron's comments were made in a speech to the country's diplomatic corps earlier Monday.
France intervened in Mali in 2013 to repel an offensive by jihadist rebels, which later saw it station troops in several neighboring Sahel countries. Macron said Monday that no country in the Sahel would be a sovereign nation without that intervention.
But France is now reconfiguring its military presence in Africa after being driven out of three Sahelian countries governed by juntas hostile to Paris – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire have also asked France to leave military bases on their territory.