# France hands over last base in Chad, ending its military presence there
France handed over its last military base in Chad on 2025-01-30, ending a major chapter in a security relationship that had made the country one of Paris’s last large military footholds in Africa. The transfer of the Sergent Adji Kossei air base in N’Djamena to Chadian authorities followed earlier handovers at two other sites, in Faya in the north and Abeche in the east.
The move came two months after Chad broke off its defense cooperation agreement with France. Chadian authorities had already framed the decision as a turning point, saying it would allow the country to redefine its strategic partnerships according to national priorities. France had around 1,000 personnel in Chad before the drawdown.
The end of the base network marks a further retreat for France in the Sahel and nearby regions, where it has been pushed out of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso in recent years after long-running campaigns against Islamist militancy. The AP report noted that those countries have moved closer to Moscow, with Russian mercenaries deployed across the Sahel, underscoring the wider geopolitical shift that has followed the French exits.
Chad remains important in regional counterterrorism efforts, and French officials had long relied on the country as a central hub. Even so, the government in N’Djamena said ending the defense agreement did not amount to a break in historical ties. Instead, officials said they wanted to maintain relations with France in other areas of common interest.
The handover also fits a broader rethinking of France’s military posture across Africa. Senegal and Ivory Coast had announced the departure of French troops in December, around the same time Paris was designing a strategy that would sharply reduce its permanent troop presence on the continent. Chad’s decision now removes one of the last visible symbols of that older model.
For Chad, the practical challenge will be whether new security arrangements can fill the gap left by French forces without weakening regional counterterrorism capacity. For France, the loss of its last base in Chad is both operationally significant and politically symbolic, showing how quickly its African military network has contracted.
