DAKAR — France officially handed over a key military base to Senegalese authorities on Tuesday, marking a significant step in the ongoing withdrawal of French troops from the West African nation.
The move follows Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s announcement last year that all French military bases in the country must be closed by 2025. The process began in March, with a series of transfers of control to Senegalese forces.
According to a statement from the French Embassy in Senegal, the base handed over was the inter-service transmission station located in Rufisque, near Dakar. The site, operational since 1960, had served as a radio relay hub for communication with French navy vessels and submarines along the Atlantic coast. It also functioned as a surveillance post to intercept maritime communications as part of efforts to combat trafficking.
France had already returned several military sites in Dakar earlier in 2025, including the Maréchal and Saint-Exupéry quarters, as well as the Contre-Amiral Protet area. The final French military installations are expected to be handed over by the end of July, the embassy said.
The withdrawal from Senegal is part of a broader retreat of French forces from Africa. Since 2022, several nations — including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire — have ended long-standing defense agreements with France, reflecting a shifting political and security landscape across the region.
France’s presence in the Sahel region was drastically reduced following its forced exit from Mali in 2022, where it had been engaged in counterterrorism operations under Operation Barkhane since 2014. Similar agreements were terminated in Burkina Faso and Chad, with French troops leaving both countries by early 2025.
