Remaining 130 French Soldiers Leave Central African Republic, French Defense Ministry Says

PARIS (Sputnik) - The remaining 130 French soldiers, who were in the Central African Republic, have left the country, the French Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"On December 15, the last French soldiers under national command, who were in the Central African Republic as part of a logistics mission (MISLOG), left the country," the ministry said in a communique.

The ministry noted that this mission, which involved about 130 French military personnel, "no longer had an operational justification."

Earlier, the speaker of the CAR parliament, Simplice Sarandji, told Sputnik that the country did not expel the French military from its territory, Paris independently decided to withdraw the contingent.

Paris in 2021 decided to suspend military cooperation with Bangui, because it considered that she was participating in an anti-French campaign allegedly carried out by Russia. The French contingent in the MISLOG-B mission was responsible for the logistics of the base in the capital Bangui, which is used by members of the EU training mission and the UN Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in the CAR.