"We will remain but with a reduced footprint... We will do more training, more equipping and better accompanying" of local troops according to their needs, Macron said.
"The change will happen in the coming months with a noticeable reduction of our numbers and a greater presence in these bases of our African partners," Macron said ahead of a four-nation African tour.
This "reorganization... does not intend to be a withdrawal," he said.
"We will remain but with a reduced footprint... We will do more training, more equipping and better accompanying" of local troops according to their needs, he said.
Some bases would become training academies, while others would become "partner" bases, he added.
Macron said they would adapt with less French military personnel on the ground, and an "Africanization" of their staff.
They would see a "rise in the presence of their African partners according to goals defined" by these partners, he added.
Anti-French sentiment is running high in former French colonies Mali and Burkina Faso after military coups there that led to fallouts with Paris and the pullout of French troops from both countries.
Macron said on Monday that he will not allow France to become "the ideal scapegoat" in Africa, in a speech ahead of a trip to the continent from Wednesday.
Some African countries have criticized France for failing to curb Islamist militancy in the Sahel region in particular.
Macron also said he refused to be drawn into an outdated competition between powers for control of Africa.
The French president heads off on a four-nation tour of central African countries from Wednesday as Paris seeks to counter growing Chinese and Russian influence on the continent.
He will visit Gabon for an environmental summit, followed by Angola, then the Republic of Congo -Brazzaville, and finally the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
This report was sourced from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
