France has officially handed over a military base housing a communications center in Rufisque, near Dakar, to Senegal, as part of its planned full military withdrawal from the country by the end of the year.
The move follows a request from Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who announced in late 2024 that the presence of French military bases was “incompatible with national sovereignty” and called for their closure by 2025.
France began the process in March by transferring control of the “Maréchal” and “Saint-Exupéry” bases, with all remaining facilities expected to be handed over by September.
According to a statement from the French embassy, the communications center had been in operation since 1960 — the year Senegal gained independence from French colonial rule — marking decades of strategic alliance between Dakar and Paris in West Africa.
President Faye, who took office in 2024, pledged to redefine relations with France as a “normal foreign partnership,” effectively ending decades of close military cooperation. All Senegalese staff working with the French forces will be released from their duties starting July 1, 2025.
The handover comes a day after talks between the French and Senegalese presidents on the sidelines of an international summit in Seville, where both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to a new partnership focused on economic and security cooperation — without a permanent French military presence.
