Operation Barkhane

In brief

France’s Sahel-wide counterterrorism operation, 2014–2022 — left Mali in August 2022 and ended that November.

Scope: Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
Subordination: Historical subordination
Sources: 3 on the record
Record state: Full

Broad area of activity: Five Sahel states; in Mali, based at Gao with the north as its hunting ground.
Notable history: Barkhane killed successive jihadist commanders — including ISGS’s founder and AQIM’s emir — and kept the insurgencies from massing, but could not reverse their spread. After the coups, Bamako’s pivot to Wagner and escalating disputes, France withdrew from Mali in August 2022 and ended Barkhane that November. Its departure removed the air cover, intelligence and medevac that had underwritten a decade of the status quo.
Strengths: Precision strike and special-operations reach no successor replaced.
Limitations: A decade of decapitation without stabilisation; political sustainability collapsed at both ends.

Reported & historical equipment associations

Mirage 2000D · Historically associated Tigre attack helicopter · Historically associated VBCI · Historically associated VAB · Historically associated

Related organisations

Task Force Takuba Institutionally linked to · as of 2022-06 · high confidence
Operated under Barkhane's command and logistics umbrella; both ended with the French withdrawal from Mali.

Lineage & institutional history

Formed 2014-08-01Disbanded 2022-11-09

Predecessors: Operation Serval

Key events

Feb – Aug 2022high confidence

France withdraws from Mali

President Macron announces the end of Barkhane operations in Mali in February; the last French soldier leaves Malian territory on 15 August 2022, nine years after Serval.

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System access

Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.

France The institution or actor record that names this organisation Equipment catalogue 4 linked systems — family-level records, never quantities Timeline 1 development link to this record From the intervention Bamako asked for in 2013 to the treaty it denounced in 2022 — the relationship the Russian presence replaced. A standing arrangement this organisation embodies Sixty years of defence cooperation ended in five months — the agreements denounced in August 2023, the last French troops gone by Christmas. A standing arrangement this organisation embodies

Sensitivity: Historical Confidence: High Sources: Established historical record · France 24 / RFI ↗ · International Crisis Group ↗ Methodology Corrections

Assessed as of — 2022-11 Last reviewed — 2026-07-15

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