The Latest Breaking News from Chad

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.

Ivory Coast is the sixth in a growing list of African nations cutting military ties with former colonial power France.

Chadians have voted in parliamentary and regional elections that will end the three-year transitional period from military rule but which the main opposition is boycotting

Chad began voting on Sunday in a general election that is presented by the government as a key step towards ending military rule but has been boycotted by the opposition.

The Central African nation delayed elections citing financial challenges and the COVID pandemic.

Opposition parties urge Chadians to boycott the vote, calling it a sham aimed at entrenching the ruling party’s power.

Chadian authorities were on Friday in full control of the Faya-Largeau base after French military chiefs officially handed over the northern compound – marking another step in France’s complete withdrawal from Chad.

French soldiers have been asked to leave Chad by 31 January, sources close to the government in Paris say – a deadline that RFI was able to confirm with Chadian authorities.

Paris’s influence on the continent faces the biggest challenge in decades

A wave of African countries is pushing the former coloniser back, but Senegal is the only one without military leaders.

For over six decades, Chad was a crucial ally to French and US forces in their counter-insurgency operations in the Sahel. But both lost influence because of repeated mistakes.