Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, on graphic used for Press TV worldwide satellite news broadcast. Azikiwe is an African affairs analyst, a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Interview with Abayomi Azikiwe
Sun Dec 29, 2013 5:54PM GMT
To watch this Press TV World News interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, just click on the website below:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/29/342632/france-chad-worsen-situation-in-car/
Press TV has conducted an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of Pan African News Wire from Detroit, about the crisis in Central African Republic, French intervention and its impact on the population.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: French troops are in the Central African Republic to supposedly restore law and order there, but how much can foreign military intervention help resolve the crisis; and how much is this intervention for real?
Azikiwe: Obviously the intervention by France as well as Chad has worsened the political and social situation inside the Central African Republic.
We believe very strongly that France is way in above their heads. That’s why yesterday they made an international appeal, again, to the United Nations Security Council to provide additional troops to go into the Central African Republic. But they have no overall strategy for normalizing the situation inside the country.
And what we’re seeing now is general panic among large segments of the population with people trying to flee the country to get away from the escalating fighting that is going on.
France has alienated a large segment of the population there. There have been demonstrations over the last seven days against France and their role inside the capital of Bangui and other areas of the country.
Press TV: We’re seeing African countries again becoming the target of Western countries – we have the Central African Republic and Mali being the target of French colonialism once again. What is the long term plan and how will this have an effect on the economy?
Azikiwe: I think it speaks directly to the economic crisis that’s been plaguing Europe particularly for the last five years.
We have a situation in France where the majority of the population is totally opposed to Francois Hollande’s government’s intervention into the Central African Republic; and in all likelihood in Mali as well as Somalia and other areas on the African continent.
They are there to advance their own national interests in relationship to the ruling interests in France; but at the same time creating an untenable situation in various African countries.
And until the African Union gets strong enough to where it can deploy its own peacekeeping forces independent of France and the United States, we are going to continue to have these false starts in Africa that are largely based upon the interests that are going on in all these Western industrialized states.
Chad, which is allied with France, has created a lot of anger as well inside the Central African Republic – several Chadian troops were killed just two days ago in an ambush. So the situation is not getting any better inside that country.
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