France and Chad resume military cooperation as they mend ties
Oct 30, 2026
Relations between France and its former colony,
Chad, have been on the mend recently,
after N'Djamena kicked French troops out of the country in 2024,
ending a six-decade security arrangement.
President Emmanuel Macron hosted
Chadian leader Mohamed Idriss Deby Itno
for talks in Paris in mid-October.
Thank you.
And now, the French army says two of its fighter jets
and a transport aircraft
will soon make a stopover in Chad,
where they'll carry out training activities.
A spokesperson for the chief
of defence staff told reporters that Paris' objective
was to contribute to efforts against regional instability.
During Deby's visit in October,
France and Chad signed a declaration of intent
to structure their defence cooperation on a renewed basis.
The November stopover will take place
as part of a joint military exercise
involving the armed forces of Ivory Coast, Gabon and France.
Chad had been one of France's last military footholds in the Sahel,
where it once deployed more than 5,000 soldiers
as part of an anti-Jihadist operation which ended in November 2022.