French soldiers were deployed for a decade to fight an Islamist insurgency in its former colonial territory of the Sahel region. Read more at straitstimes.com.

African officials pushed back after French President Emmanuel Macron said that some of their nations owed their sovereignty to France after its troops intervened in their countries.

President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday faced an angry backlash from France's remaining allies in West Africa and accusations at home of showing a neo-colonialist attitude after lamenting that African countries "forgot to say thank you" for France's decade-long military deployment to fight an Islamist insurgency.

In a speech to France's diplomatic corps on Monday, Macron accused African leaders of 'forgetting' to 'thank' France for preventing their nations from falling under the control of jihadist insurgencies.

Emmanuel Macron had said African leaders had not thanked France for ‘helping to combat’ insurgencies - Anadolu Ajansı

The Senegalese prime minister and the Chadian foreign minister have condemned claims made by Emmanuel Macron regarding negotiations about the withdrawal of French troops from several African countries,