President Emmanuel Macron opened the door on Tuesday to withdrawing some troops from Africa's Sahel region, saying France could "adjust" its operations after successes against Islamist militants and the arrival of more European forces. France, the former colonial power, has the West's largest military presence waging counter-insurgency operations in Mali and the wider Sahel, an arid region of west Africa just below the Sahara desert. "The results obtained by our forces in the Sahel, combined with the greater intervention of our European partners, will allow us to adjust our effort," he said, referring to the arrival of special forces from various European Union countries in recent months.