President of France Emmanuel Macron (pictured) will visit troops deployed abroad on 18-19th of May, in Mali, where he meets with the miliary engaged in Barkhane operation, according to Le Figaro newspaper sources.

France intervened in Mali in 2013 to defend the population from al Qaeda-linked militants who seized northern Mali the year before.

It has since deployed more than 4,000 soldiers, known as the Barkhane force, across the region to defeat Islamists, whose groups amount up to thousand.