France hands over a new military base to Senegal
France handed over to Senegalese authorities on Thursday the “Contre-Amiral Protet” military base located in the port of Dakar.
This comes as part of France’s gradual military withdrawal from the country, expected to be completed by late September 2025.
The French Embassy in Senegal stated in a press release that the delivery of the “Contre-Amiral Protet” comes within the framework of bilateral discussions ratified during the Joint Commission meeting on February 28, 2025, chaired by General Abdel Latif Camara, and attended by French Ambassador Christine Fages and the Commander of the Special Security Forces, General Yves Hounnis.
French authorities handed over the Maréchal and Saint-Exupéry bases to their Senegalese counterparts on March 7, with the remaining military bases scheduled to be handed over by the summer of this year.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Afai announced in an interview with Agence France-Presse in late November 2024 that France will be forced to close its military bases in Senegal, stressing that his country is an independent and sovereign state, and sovereignty is incompatible with the presence of foreign military bases.
More than a year ago, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko affirmed Senegal’s desire to have its own control, in contrast to the permanent presence of foreign military bases.
Sonko added, in a speech at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar alongside French opposition politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, that, more than six decades after independence, one must question why the French army continues to benefit from several military bases and the impact of this presence on national sovereignty and strategic independence.
