French President Emmanuel Macron cancels Mali trip amid uptick in France’s COVID-19 cases

French President Emmanuel Macron was expected visit to Mali today but has cancelled his trip due to France’s deteriorating COVID-19 situation.

Macron was scheduled to meet with Colonel Assimi Goita—interim president of Mali—and  pay a Christmas visit to French troops stationed in the country.

Mali has suffered from civil war since 2012. French troops first deployed to the country in 2013 to support the central government and combat Islamist insurgents with ties to anti-government forces.

France is grappling with the future of its historic military presence in the Sahel region of West Africa. France currently maintains a force of over 5,000 troops but intends on withdrawing 2,000 by early 2022. Expect flexibility to this plan, contingent in part on the activity levels of rebel and jihadist forces in Mali. Paris will also evaluate the extent to which it can trust Goita’s transitional government. At this time, Paris is wary of the military leader—who led two coups in less than a year before being sworn in as interim president. In the medium-term, expect France to shift the West African conflict to the international community at large, by calling for UN peacekeepers to substitute departing French forces.