Chad: Troops to Leave Mali

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/world/africa/chad-troops-to-leave-mali.html

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Chad’s president says his country’s troops are pulling out of Mali three months after the French-led mission to oust militants linked to Al Qaeda began, raising questions about how feasible the planned French pullout will be if France wants to maintain the progress made against terrorists in northern Mali. “Chad’s army has no ability to face the kind of guerrilla fighting that is emerging in northern Mali,” President Idriss Déby said in an interview with French journalists that was posted online on Monday. “Our soldiers are going to return to Chad. They have accomplished their mission.” Mr. Déby said Chad already had begun pulling out a battalion, with the rest of its 2,000 soldiers to leave over time. He held out the possibility that Chad’s troops could join an eventual United Nations peacekeeping force in Mali. Chad’s departure leaves the Malian and French forces with about 4,000 other troops from a number of other West African countries: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo, though none have the same expertise on terrain similar to northern Mali as the Chadians.