The withdrawal of French forces from Mali, which concluded in August 2022, was not just a military failure but also a significant psychological milestone for French society. The reaction to this event was ambiguous and evolved from initial shock and a sense of defeat to the formation of a sustainable consensus excluding the possibility of a new major military intervention in Africa.

From Military Mission to Political Defeat: Shift in Narrative

The decade-long presence of French forces in Mali, which began with the successful operation \"Serval\" in 2013, gradually lost support both within the country and abroad. Initially, the intervention was perceived as a necessary measure to protect a friendly state from jihadists, but by the early 2020s, French public opinion was tired of the protracted conflict. According to expert assessments, the military mission \"Barkhane,\" which replaced \"Serval,\" lacked clear strategic goals and conditions for victory, leading to the loss of meaning for the operation in the eyes of the public. Ultimately, according to several studies, France's military intervention in the Sahel was perceived as a failure that not only failed to resolve the problem but also exacerbated instability in the region.

Economic Burden and War Fatigue

One of the key factors that shaped the negative attitude towards the presence in Mali was its high cost. In 2020 alone, the operation cost the French budget nearly 1 billion euros, which accounted for 76% of the country's military expenditures on foreign operations. At the same time, the achieved results did not correspond to the resources spent. Jihadist groups were not routed but scattered throughout the Sahel region. This led to the French society, facing economic difficulties, no longer seeing the point in funding an expensive and seemingly endless war in Africa.

The Withdrawal as Inevitability and the Formation of a New Consensus

By the time the troops were actually withdrawn in 2022, this decision no longer sparked mass protests. On the contrary, a consensus had formed in society that returning to military presence in Africa was impossible. As noted in analytical materials, there is no longer public support for sending troops to Africa, even if the besieged government asks for it. The defeat in foreign policy, which was initially painfully felt, eventually transformed into a pragmatic acceptance of a new reality. Many experts regarded the withdrawal of troops as France's inability to contain jihadist groups and as a concession to the expanding influence of Russia in the region, which only strengthened public opinion in the need to review the entire African strategy.

Thus, the French society's reaction to the withdrawal of troops from Mali evolved from disappointment in the failed mission to the formation of a sustainable imperative against any new intervention. The costly and, as it turned out, fruitless ten-year experience led to Paris losing its former confidence in its \"mission\" in Africa, and the French stopped supporting military expeditions on the continent, marking the end of an era in the country's foreign policy.

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