The first contingent of 120 French troops has left Chad after the African country broke a military cooperation agreement with France, Chad's defense ministry said.
"At midday, 120 French soldiers took off from the military airport of N'Djamena onboard an Airbus A330 Phoenix MRTT, headed for France," the Chadian Ministry of Defense said in a statement posted on social media Friday.
Earlier, RFI radio quoted sources in Paris and N'Djamena as saying that the Chadian authorities, who broke the military cooperation agreement with France, are demanding that French troops leave the country by January 31, 2025.
The total number of French troops in Chad is said to be around 1,000.
The newspaper Jeune Afrique quoted sources as saying that the reason for the break in defense cooperation was the parties' position on the civil war in Sudan.