GAO, Mali: French President Emmanuel Macron arrived yesterday in conflict-torn Mali to visit French troops fighting jihadists on his first official trip outside Europe since taking power, reports AFP.
At the end of his first week in office, Macron flew into Gao, a city in Mali's deeply-troubled north, where he will hold talks with his Malian counterpart Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
He will also meet some of the 1,600 French soldiers stationed there, making it the largest base outside France.The troops are part of Operation Barkhane, the counter-terror operation whose mission is to target jihadist groups operating in the Sahel region south of the Sahara.Set up in 2014, the operation comprises around 4,000 soldiers who are deployed across five countries -- Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.
Macron is travelling with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who as the former defence minister knows Gao well, and his replacement in that job, Sylvie Goulard.