PARIS: Chad announced on Thursday that it had decided to end military cooperation with France, wrongfooting the African country`s former colonial masters and adding to a series of French setbacks in the Sahel.

N`Djamena`s statement declaring its `decision to end the accord in the field of defence` came only hours after a visit by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, whose delegation was clearly unaware of the statement about to be made.

`You could describe this as a slap in the face,` said Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

The announcement by Chad _the last Sahel country to host French troops _ came shortly after Senegal`s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye indicated in an interview that France should close its military bases in that country.

`First Senegal, then Chad, within 24 hours,` Lacher said. `That shows the failure of France`s policy in Africa.` The French government had yet, as of Friday afternoon, to make an official comment on the development.

Paris has been preparing for years what it called a `reorganisation` of military relations after the forced departure of French troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigerwhere regimes hostile to France have taken hold.

On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron`s special envoy for Africa, Jean-Marie Bockel, submitted him a report on reshaping France`s military presence in Africa, calling for a partnership that was to be both `renewed` and `co-created`.

The report `recommended a drastic reduction` of France`s military presence, noted Elie Tenenbaum, at the France`s Institute for International Relations (IFRI).

Faster than the French But its conclusions left Chad dissatisfied, because they `failed to take into account their expectations`, said Yamingue Betinbaye, a political analyst in Chad, adding it might have triggered Thursday`s abrupt announcement.

`Once again, the Africans moved faster than the French,` said Tenenbaum, adding that their method had also handed a public relations victory to Russia, which has been expanding its influence in Africa.

`Both Chad and Senegal have been intensifying contacts with Russia in recent months, Tenenbaum said.

While neither country represents a strategic priority for Moscow, `it`s a good way toland a blow against the French`.

A blow that stings all the more given that Macron and Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno had agreed only last month to `strengthen cooperation` between both countries.

`A page has been turned` after years of military cooperation, said Lacher, noting that France had `saved` the current president`s late father and predecessor, Idriss Deby, `several times` when he was under threat of losing power.

Lacher said there had been `no need whatsoever` for Chad`s leader to cancel the arrangement with France, adding: `His position with Paris was comfortable.

Analysts say recent events point to France`s difficulties as it seeks to emerge from the deadlock created by its cancellation of the contingent in the Sahel in 2022, and as it faces a wave of anti-French sentiment on the continent.

In January Thierry Burkhard, French armed forces chief, acknowledged that France`s military presence in Africa was creating `negative perceptions that end up outweighing the positive effects`.

France, he recommended, should allow sovereign African partner nations `to communicate about their own actions`.-AFP