France announced Tuesday it would close its military base in ex-colony Senegal and pull out all but 300 of its 1,200 troops there in a shift toward helping local African forces provide their own security.
Those French troops remaining would staff a military cooperation center for the West African region, a statement issued by the French embassy in the capital Dakar said.
"The main goal of our defense cooperation is to help Africa launch its own collective security system, together with our longstanding training for officers of national armies," it said.
"France will no longer have a military base," it added, noting it would retain its two other African bases in central African Gabon and the other in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
By: Brant
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