Chad has said it is terminating a key defense cooperation deal with France, raising questions about Paris’s declining influence in Africa’s embattled Sahel region.
Chadian Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said it is time for his country to “assert its full sovereignty.”
The announcement came just hours after Koulamallah’s French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, met Chad’s President Mahamat Deby.
Chad is a key partner in the West’s fight against Islamist militants in the West African Sahel region.
But ahead of presidential elections in May, Chadian authorities ordered the withdrawal of US troops from the country, signaling a move away from the country’s traditional Western allies.
France currently has around 1,000 troops in the Central African country providing intelligence and logistical assistance to the Chadian army from their bases, including in the capital N’Djamena.
France, Chad’s former colonial ruler, had signed a revised version of the military and security agreement in 2019.
Chad is just the latest country in Central and West Africa to abandon its security agreements with Paris.
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have all ended their agreements with France and other Western countries in recent years and turned to Russia for support.
But Koulamallah told AFP news agency that Chad’s decision did not mark a “break with France, like Niger or elsewhere”.
France was an “essential partner” but Chad must “redefine its strategic partnerships based on national priorities,” Koulamallah said at a news conference on Thursday.
Authorities insisted the measure would not affect Chad’s relations with France in other areas.
More BBC stories from Chad:
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