Senegal's President Bassirou Dioumaye Faye annouced late last year that former colonial power France would have to close its military bases in Senegal by 2025 -- a process that began in March with the first handovers to Senegalese authorities.
France returned on Tuesday a military communications centre located in Rufisque, near Dakar, the French embassy in Senegal said in a statement.
The station had been "responsible for communications on the southern Atlantic coast since 1960", the statement read.
After its independence in 1960, Senegal remained one of France's most reliable African allies.
But Faye, in power since 2024, has pledged to treat France as any other foreign partner.
As a result, all Senegalese staff working for French troops in Senegal were to be dismissed starting on July 1.
Anxious residents re-emerge after Mali jihadist attacks
Bamako (AFP) July 2, 2025 -
People in towns in western Mali where jihadists attacked army sites a day earlier were afraid but went about their business Wednesday following the major assault which killed a civilian.
Jihadist fighters staged early-morning strikes on military positions in seven towns or cities Tuesday, in the third large-scale attack on the Malian army in a month.
A source in the governor's office in the city of Kayes told AFP the places hit -- Kayes, Nioro du Sahel, Niono, Molodo, Sandare, Gogui and Diboli -- were calm on Wednesday.
"The governor's residence was attacked by the jihadists. There was some damage but today the city is calm," the source said.
"The situation is calm in the other towns but according to the information coming back, the people are afraid," the source added.
A hospital source in Kayes, the main city in the western region, said a civilian, who had been admitted to hospital following the attacks, had died.
"More than 10 seriously injured people are admitted here and are receiving treatment," the source said, adding most were civilians and one a soldier.
In Nioro du Sahel, "calm returned on Wednesday morning", a shop owner who had opened for business told AFP.
"Yesterday we were really afraid... This morning, people are going about their business, but everyone is talking about nothing but this attack."
- Curfew -
A regional elected official also said the situation was "calm everywhere", but added: "The jihadists caused damage" in several places.
An Al-Qaeda-linked group known by its Arabic initials, JNIM, claimed responsibility.
AFP was unable to independently verify the claim.
The series of assaults came on the heels of two major attacks claimed by jihadists.
On June 2, a coordinated assault targeted an army camp in the ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali's north, as well as its airport.
That attack took place a day after a bloody raid killed at least 30 soldiers in the centre of the country.
Mali's army said late Tuesday the jihadists had suffered "big losses" and that "more than 80 terrorists" were "neutralised", a loose term that could mean killed or captured.
An overnight curfew was imposed for 30 days and people and transport face restrictions in the Kayes region.
"In Kayes, the city is calm and tense at the same time," a resident told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
People had already hunkered down at home late Tuesday even before the curfew was announced, the resident said.
"All we could hear were the patrols moving around the city. This morning, insecurity is certainly at the centre of everyone's discussions, but people are going about their business," the resident added.
In Niono, many people were hesitant to return to work in the surrounding rice fields.
"We were already used to a certain insecurity... but the events of yesterday cast a chill over people," a teacher in Niono said.
Another of the towns, Diboli, is very close to the Senegal border.
On the Senegalese side, an administrative official told AFP that the army and other security personnel had been deployed to bolster security.
"Patrols are carried out regularly but they have been reinforced to reassure the population. All measures are being taken to protect the national territory," the official said.
Since 2012, Mali has been battling an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north of the vast nation, swept the country and spilled over into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Violence by groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group as well as separatist movements and criminal gangs has plunged the junta-led west African country into a deep security crisis.
The three Sahel states' military juntas pledged during the coups that brought them to power to make security a priority.
But they are struggling to contain the advance by the jihadists, who have recently intensified their offensives against the armies in the three countries.
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