A C-130 transporter plane carried 47 troops from a logistics support unit as it made its final departure from Bangui, Central African Republic, CAR, airport with a 130-person French contingent.
After a coup in 2013 ignited a civil conflict along sectarian lines, France, a former colonial power, sent up to 1,600 troops to help stabilise the country.
Since the CAR obtained independence in 1960, France has intervened militarily seven times, the most recent being the Sangaris operation.
After the elections in October 2016, it came to an end, although French influence lingered. President Faustin Archange Touadera enlisted the aid of Russian paramilitaries in December 2020 to assist him repel rebel factions advancing on the city.
Russian military advisers, according to the CAR, are actually mercenaries from the Kremlin-backed Wagner group, who have a history of massacres and resource stealing, according to France, the UN, and others.
Paris decided to halt military cooperation with Bangui last year because it believed Bangui was involved in a Russian-allegedly-led anti-French effort.
“France decided that the conditions were no longer appropriate for us to continue working for the benefit of the Central African armed forces,” General Francois-Xavier Mabin, commander of French forces in Gabon, told AFP.
French troops in the CAR, stationed at Bangui airport’s M’Poko base, have provided logistics for the European Union Training Mission and a contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).