On Thursday night, France’s foreign minister left Chad confident about its ongoing military relationship with its last strategic partner in the Sahel.Yet shortly after Jean-Noël Barrot took off for Paris from the capital N’Djamena,

A French plan to significantly reduce its military presence in West and central Africa risks backfiring and further diminishing the former colonial power's influence in the region at a time when Russia is gaining ground.

The decision by Chad is another blow to what remained of France’s military influence in the troubled stretch of countries below the Sahara, where Russia’s influence has been growing.