France is ending its military mission in Africa after more than a decade. French President Emmanuel Macron announced this, noting that a new strategy will be developed with African partners, AFP reported.

"I have decided, in coordination with our partners, to make official today the end of the Barkhane operation," Macron said. The move was "consequence of what we have experienced" in recent months, and a new strategy will be developed over the next six months, he added.

"Our military support to African countries will continue, but according to new principles that we have defined with them," Macron said.

He said the future strategy will be based on much closer cooperation with African armies to make France's own deployment easier and more dynamic. "Our engagements with our partners in Africa will be focused on a logic of cooperation and relying on their arms," Macron told senior members of the armed forces and diplomats aboard the French helicopter carrier.

French forces have faced growing hostility from those who see them as an occupying force of the former colonial power, and Macron withdrew troops from Mali this year when relations with the country's rulers soured.

Some 3,000 French soldiers remain in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger. There are no immediate plans to reduce the numbers.