On Thursday night, France’s foreign minister left Chad confident about its ongoing military relationship with its last strategic partner in the Sahel.

Yet shortly after Jean-Noël Barrot took off for Paris from the capital N’Djamena, a Facebook message flashed up announcing Chad’s “decision to end the accord in the field of defence”.

Chad’s shock announcement to end its military ties with its former colonial power will likely result in the exit of some 1,000 French troops currently stationed in the country to help in its fight against jihadists and various rebel groups.

Compounding the humiliation, the move came just hours after Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senegal’s president, announced that France should close its military bases in the West African country as part of its drive to regain full “sovereignty”.

The twin blows have left Emmanuel Macron reeling. Hamstrung at home after calling snap elections that saw him lose his already tenuous grip on parliament, the embattled French president is now more or less confined to playing the international statesman.

Even here he is now on the back foot.

“You could describe this as a slap in the face,” said Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

“First Senegal, then Chad, within 24 hours,” said Mr Lacher. “That shows the failure of France’s policy in Africa,” he added, pointing out that French troops were also recently ejected from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where regimes hostile to the ex-colonial power have taken hold.