Mission abort: What next for Mali after French-led withdrawal?

Nine years have passed since then-president François Hollande swooped in to stop the southward advance of a jihadist insurgency and free the far north. But military victory was never going magically fix the politics of one of the poorest countries of the world.

What does this pullout entail? Where to? With the whole world haunted by a messy pullout from Afghanistan, we ask about the logistics of packing up 2,300 troops and heavy equipment, most probably to neighbouring Niger.

The hero's welcome of 2013 can seem like a fading memory for a Mali where the under-embargo junta has stoked anti-French sentiment, this in a nation whose future is more than ever uncertain and whose ultimate fate will impact the entire region.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juilette Laurain and Léopoldine Iribarren.

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