PARIS, July 9 (Reuters) – France will be left with between 2,500 and 3,000 soldiers in West Africa’s Sahel region once it has completed a troop drawdown, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

Macron, who gave no time frame for completing the troop reduction, was speaking after a virtual summit with Sahel region leaders.

France currently has a little over 5,000 soldiers fighting Islamist militants in the Sahel. (Reporting by Tangi Salaun; Editing by Richard Lough and Mark Heinrich)

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