The French army has always considered Chad its stronghold in Africa, a virtual aircraft carrier in the middle of the desert that must be preserved at all costs, despite recent headwinds out of the Sahel. Home to one of France's five military bases on the continent, and where generations of French officers have served since independence in 1960, the country announced on Thursday, November 28, that it was breaking off the defense agreement between the two countries. This decision "marks a historic turning point," according to a Chadian diplomatic statement, which added that the time had come "to fully assert its sovereignty and redefine its strategic partnerships."

Although the statement also said that "this decision in no way calls into question (...) the bonds of friendship between the two nations," it was an unexpected slap in the face for Paris. The press release came just as the plane carrying French Minister for Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot was taking off from Chad − after a whirlwind 24-hour visit to the country. At the Elysée, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no one seemed to have been warned. Several French military officers, visiting the capital N'Djamena to discuss further military cooperation, had not been informed either.

Indeed, even on the Chadian side, some people seemed taken by surprise. According to corroborating sources, the minister of defense himself learned of the decision from President Mahamat Idriss Déby just before the communiqué was issued. Elected in May, after succeeding his father in 2021, the 40-year-old general was France's last ally in the Sahel after the French army was ousted from Mali, Burkina Faso and then Niger by the juntas that took power there between 2020 and 2023. Already beginning to pivot toward Moscow, which he visited in January, the Chadian president did not take kindly to the fact that the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office opened a preliminary investigation against him on suspicion of ill-gotten gains. "That was the spark that set off the family," said an official in N'Djamena, agreeing that "Moscow is not far away," lying in wait.

For the French army, the Chadian bombshell has been all the more disastrous in that it came just hours after the first setback inflicted by another longstanding African partner: Senegal. Just before N'Djamena's announcement, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, an advocate of the sovereigntist line, stated in an interview with Le Monde that there would soon be no more French soldiers − and therefore no base in Dakar − in his country. Although French leaders have readily played down events, after the divorce with the Sahelian countries, the divisions have become increasingly visible in all former colonies. "It's a development that smacks of a rupture. There are cracks everywhere," said an African diplomat.

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