French troops will remain in Mali until militants are eradicated- Macron

France President Emmanuel Macron on Friday during his first visit to Mali siad France will continue to shoulder the military burden of fighting Islamist militants in the north and west Africa.

He added that Germany and other European countries can do more to help.

“France has been committed on your side from the start and what I have come here to tell you very clearly is that it will continue to be committed in the same way.” said President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron’s choice of Mali for his first trip as commander-in-chief since his election on May 7 fulfilled a campaign promise to visit French troops fighting Islamist militants.

“Those who have never been confronted with this type of asymmetrical war can go on thinking we are doing nothing just because we are not able to definitely put an end to the wrong. Those who do not live in instability can well claim that those taking action are failing because the rest of the Hydra’s head resurges when we have in fact just cut it off. In fact, we work day and night,” said Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Macron’s choice of Mali for his first trip as commander-in-chief since his election on May 7 fulfilled a campaign promise to visit French troops fighting Islamist militants.

Former colonial power France intervened in 2013 to drive out al Qaeda-linked militants who seized northern Mali the year before.

It has since deployed some 4,000 soldiers, known as the Barkhane force, across the region to hunt down Islamists.

France has been hard hit by Islamist attacks, which have killed more than 230 people on its territory in the past two years.