European special forces involved in anti-jihadist operations in Africa's Sahel region will get prime position in France's Bastille Day celebrations on Wednesday, in a sign of President Emmanuel Macron's military priorities.

The traditional parade on France's national day will return to the Champs-Elysees after a one-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Around 80 French and European special forces drawn from the multinational Takuba force in the Sahel will lead the procession, a choice intended to send a diplomatic message from Paris.

Macron, who will preside over the ceremony, announced a drawdown of French troops in the Sahel region last month.

He is banking on often reluctant European partners to step up their commitments to Takuba.

Paris wants Takuba -- which numbers only 600 troops currently, half of them French -- to take over more responsibilities from the 5,100 soldiers in France's Barkhane operation, who have been battling Islamist groups in Western Africa alongside local soldiers for eight years.

The parade will be a scaled-down version of the usual event, with only 10,000 people in the stands instead of 25,000, while a forecast of heavy rain might disrupt the fly-overs and pageantry.

The weather might also dampen firework shows around the country, another popular feature of Bastille Day, which marks the storming of the Bastille prison, a major event in the 1789 French Revolution.

Alongside the celebrations, the southern Riviera town of Nice will also mark the fifth anniversary of a terror attack that saw a man kill 86 people after driving a truck into a crowd of people watching fireworks.

Prime Minister Jean Castex will visit the city for a ceremony at the site of a memorial for the victims, where 86 doves are set to be released as a sign of peace.

Later in the evening, city authorities have organised a concert and at 10:34 pm, the time of the start of the truck rampage, 86 beams of light will illuminate the Mediterranean waterfront to honour the dead.

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France's Sahel military force will end in early 2022: Macron
Paris (AFP) July 14, 2021
France's anti-jihadist military force in the Sahel region, which today involves over 5,000 troops, will end in the first quarter of 2022, President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday. Last week Macron announced a gradual drawdown of France's military presence in the Sahel and the end of the existing Barkhane operation. Now he has put a timeline on the end of the operation, while assuring that France is "not withdrawing" entirely from the region. "We will put an end to Operation Barkhane in th ... read more