Chad: Paris and N'Djamena re-sign defense partnership, two years after departure of French troops

France and Chad have signed a declaration of intent on defense cooperation, RFI reported on October 14, 2026. The text was initialed by the defense ministers of both countries on the sidelines of Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno's reception at the Élysée by Emmanuel Macron. This marks the first written framework between the two militaries since N'Djamena terminated a six-decade-old security agreement in late 2024.

According to RFI, the declaration covers training, expertise, defense industry and technology, and the capabilities of the Chadian armed forces. The Élysée indicates that security cooperation had in fact resumed as early as the beginning of 2026: military training, equipment supplies, and intelligence sharing. A French diplomatic source quoted by RFI pointed to a "legal vacuum" left by the 2024 rupture, which needed to be filled.

A rupture, then a thaw within eighteen months

In late 2024, Chad ordered the withdrawal of French troops. The decision extended a broader sequence: France had already departed from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger following the coups between 2020 and 2023, as the transitional authorities in those countries turned toward Russia. The thaw began in January 2026 with a first visit by Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno to the Élysée, followed by a meeting in May 2026 at the Africa Forward summit in Nairobi.

French intelligence already on the ground

In the interim, cooperation had never truly ceased. A senior Chadian officer told AFP that French intelligence officers are deployed in N'Djamena alongside the Chadian national agency, and that a French surveillance aircraft operates around Lake Chad, where Boko Haram remains active. The country also hosts around one million refugees fleeing war-torn Sudan, according to RFI.

The economic component, the other driver

The agreement comes alongside a business push. Medef gathered 250 companies during a forum dedicated to Chad in September 2026 and plans to send a delegation to N'Djamena. Chadian authorities have set a target of raising $30 billion in financing and achieving a 60% increase in GDP by 2030.

There remains the question raised by critics of this return: what a "renewed" partnership actually contains between a former colonial power and a state it long supported militarily. A declaration of intent is not a treaty: its operational details, and the degree of control N'Djamena will maintain over French activities conducted from its territory, remain to be written.