France is the Biggest Problem in French-Speaking West African Countries

By Bobby Quaqoo 

September 8, 2023

France is the devil, and all the unrest taking place is because of France. Ask me why?

African Countries Still Pay Over $500 Billion as Colonial Tax to France Each Year

When Sekou Toure of Guinea Conakry triggered the abandonment of France (Independence), the French government ordered home three thousand Frenchmen from the country.

They were asked to take with them, all their possessions and everything that was under French control in the country and destroying all that could not be moved.

Among the things that were destroyed across the country were schools, nurseries, buildings of public administrations, important national records and plans, cars, books, and medicines.

The gigantic destruction covered also, instruments of research institutes, tractors for agriculture, roads; horses, cows on farms were killed, and stored foods were burned or poisoned.

In solidarity, and as a concern for this this horrible act against the people of Guinea, the President of Ghana at the time, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had to offer £10 million of Ghana’s economic reserve to support Guinea in order that the country can survive this turmoil!

The aim of this scandalous act was to send a clear message to all the other colonies about the consequences of France’s rejection.

The fact is that little by little, the fear seized the African elites, and after these events no other country ever found the courage to follow the example of Sékou Touré, whose slogan was “We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.”

For any newly independent country thereafter, it was necessary to find compromises with France.

Sylvanus Olympio, the first president of the Republic of Togo, a small country in West Africa, found a solution likely to calm the French:

Not wanting to continue to undergo French domination, he refused to sign the colonial pact proposed by De Gaule, but agreed in return to pay an annual debt to France for the so-called benefits obtained during the French colonization.

This was the only condition for France not to destroy the country before leaving. However, the amount estimated by France was so large that the reimbursement of the so-called “colonial debt” was close to 40% of the country’s budget in 1963.

Consequently, the financial situation of just independent Togo was very unstable, and in order to get out of this situation, Olympio decided to leave the monetary system set up by colonial France the FCFA (franc of the French colonies of Africa), and created the currency of the country.

On January 13, 1963, three days after he began printing the new bills, a squad of soldiers (supported by France) seized and killed the first elected president of independent Africa: Olympio was executed by an ex French legionnaire, the sergeant of the army Etienne Gnassingbe who, at the same time, received a bonus of 612 dollars from the local French embassy for the success of his mission.

Olympio’s dream was to build an independent and autonomous country. But the idea did not correspond to the French wishes.

On June 30, 1962, Modibo Keita, the first president of the Republic of Mali, also decided to withdraw from the CFAF monetary system (imposed on 12 newly independent African countries). Indeed, for the Malian president, who leaned more towards a socialist economy, it was clear that the colonization that was lasting with this pact with France, became a trap, a burden for the development of the country.

On November 19, 1968, like Olympio, Keita will be the victim of a coup led by another former French legionary of foreign affairs, Lieutenant Moussa Traoré.

In fact, during this turbulent period when Africa was struggling to free itself from the yoke of European colonization, France will repeatedly use mercenaries formerly affiliated with the foreign legion to carry out fist operations against the newly elected presidents:

On 1 January 1966, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a former French legionnaire, waged a coup against David Dacko, the first president of the Central African Republic.

On January 3, 1966, Maurice Yaméogo, the first president of the Republic of Upper Volta, today called Burkina Faso, was the victim of a blow by Aboubacar Sangoulé Lamizana, a former French legionnaire who fought with French troops in Indonesia and Algeria against these countries independence.

On 26 October 1972 Mathieu Kérékou, who was a security guard to President Hubert Maga, the first president of the Republic of Benin, carried out a coup against the president, after having attended the French military schools from 1968 to 1970.

In fact, over the last 50 years, a total of 67 coups have occurred in 26 countries in Africa, 16 of which are former French colonies, which means that 61% of coups d’etat in Africa were initiated in former French colonies.

In March 2008, former French President Jacques Chirac said:

“Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of twenty-third power [of the world]”

The predecessor of Jacques Chirac François Mitterrand had already prophesized in 1957 that: “Without Africa, France will have no history in the 21st century.”

At the very moment when I am writing this article, 14 African countries are obliged by France, through the colonial pact, to put 85% of their reserves in the central bank of France under the control of the French Ministry of Finance. So far, in 2014, Togo and about 13 other African countries still have to pay the colonial debt to France. African leaders who refuse are killed or victims of coup d’etat. Those who obey are supported and rewarded by France with a sumptuous lifestyle, while their populations endure misery and despair.

Such an evil system is denounced by the European Union, but France is not ready to do without this colonial system which offers it a cash of about 500 billion dollars from Africa each and every year. We often accuse African leaders of corruption and serving the interests of Western nations, but there is a clear explanation for this behavior. They behave this way because they are afraid of being killed or being the victim of a coup. They want to ally themselves with a powerful nation to save themselves in case of aggression or difficulties.

However, unlike friendly protection, the protection of the West is often offered in exchange for giving up serving their own people or the interests of nations.

African leaders would work in the interest of their people if they were not constantly harassed and intimidated by the colonial countries.

In 1958, scared of the consequences of his choice of independence from France, Léopold Sédar Senghor said: “The choice of the Senegalese people is independence, they want it to take place only in friendship with France. France, not in dispute.”

France has therefore accepted an “independence on paper” for its colonies, but has signed in parallel “cooperation agreements”, specifying the nature of their relations with France, especially the ties to the currency (the Franc), the French education system, military agreements and trade preferences.

Here are the 11 main components of the continuation of the colonization pact since the 1950s:

1. The colonial debt for the benefits of French colonization The newly “independent” countries have to pay for the infrastructure built by France in the country during colonization.

I still have to find the details on the amounts, the assessment of colonial benefits and the payment terms imposed on African countries, but we are working on it (helping us with information).

2. Automatic confiscation of national reserves

African countries must deposit their national currency reserves in France at the central bank. France has held national reserves of fourteen African countries since 1961: Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea Equatorial Republic and Gabon.

The monetary policy governing such a diversified grouping of countries is simple because it is managed by the French Treasury, without referring to central tax authorities such as UEMOA or CEMAC. Under the terms of the agreement put in place by the central bank of the CFA, each Central Bank of each African country is obliged to keep at least 65% of its foreign exchange reserves in an “account of operations” held in the country. French Treasury, and another 20% to cover financial liabilities.

CFA central banks also impose a ceiling on credit granted to each member country at the equivalent of 20% of the country’s public revenue over the previous year. Even if the BEAC and the BCEAO have an overdraft facility with the French Treasury, overdraft facilities are subject to the consent of the French Treasury.

The last word is that of the French Treasury which has invested foreign reserves of African countries in its own name on the Paris Stock Exchange. In short, more than 80% of the foreign exchange reserves of these African countries are deposited in the “accounts of operations” controlled by the French Treasury. The two CFA banks are African by name, but do not have their own monetary policy.

The countries themselves do not know, are not informed, up to how much the foreign exchange reserve held by the French Treasury belongs to them as a group or individually.

The gains from the investment of these French Treasury funds are supposed to be added to the foreign exchange reserve, but there is no accounting transmitted to banks or countries, nor the details of these changes. “Only a small group of senior French Treasury officials know the amounts in the” trading accounts “where these funds are invested; if there is a profit on these investments, they are prohibited from disclosing this information to the CFA banks or the central banks of the African states. “Writes Dr. Gary K. Busch. It is estimated that France manages nearly 500 billion African silver in its cash and does nothing to shed some light on this dark side of the old empire.

The purpose remains: African countries do not have access to this money. France allows them access to only 15% of their money a year. If they need more, African countries must borrow, at commercial rates, the 65% of their money held in the French Treasury.

To make things more tragic, France imposes a ceiling on the amount of money that countries can borrow from the reserve. The ceiling is set at 20% of their public revenue from the previous year. If countries need to borrow more than 20% of their own money, France has a veto. Former French President Jacques Chirac recently spoke about African countries’ money in banks in France. Here is a video that talks about the French operating system.

3. Right of priority over any natural or raw resource discovered in the country France has priority in the purchase of all the natural resources of the land of its former colonies. It is only in case of refusal that African countries are allowed to seek other partners.

4. Priority to French interests and companies in public contracts and public buildings in awarding public contracts, French companies must be considered in the first place, and only after the foreign markets are considered. The fact that African countries could obtain a better financial offer elsewhere is not taken into account.

As a result, in most ex-French colonies, all the largest companies and economic players are in the hands of French expatriates. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, French companies own and control all the major public services – water, electricity, telephone, transport, ports and the big banks. Ditto in trade, construction and agriculture. In the end, as I wrote in a previous article, Africans now live on a continent owned by Europeans!

5. Exclusive right to provide military equipment and train military officers of the countries, thanks to a sophisticated system of scholarships, grants, and the “defense agreements” attached to the colonial pact, Africans must send their senior training officers to France or to French military infrastructures.

The situation on the continent is such that France has trained and fed hundreds, even thousands of traitors. They are dormant as long as they are not needed and activated when needed for a coup d’etat or for other purposes!

6. Right for France to pre-deploy troops and intervene militarily in the country to defend its interests Under the name “Defense Agreements” attached to the colonial pact. France has the right to intervene militarily in African countries, and also to station troops permanently in military bases and installations, entirely managed by the French. French military bases in Africa when President Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d’Ivoire attempted to end the French exploitation of the country, France organized a coup d’etat. During the long process of driving Gbagbo out of power, French tanks, combat helicopters and special forces directly intervened in the conflict, shot civilians and killed many of them. To add insult to insult, France estimates that the French business community lost several million dollars during the rush to leave Abidjan in 2006 (where the French army massacred 65 unarmed civilians and wounded 1200 others.)

After the success of the coup by France, and the transfer of power to Alassane Ouattara, France asked the Ouattara government to pay compensation to the French business community for losses during the civil war.

In fact, the Ouattara government paid them twice what they said they lost when they left.

7. Obligation to make French the official language of the country and the language for education Yes sir. You must speak French, the language of Molière! The French language and an organization of the diffusion of the culture was created. Called “Francophonie” which gathers with several branches and affiliated organizations all controlled by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. As demonstrated in this article, if French is the only language you speak, you would have access to less than 4% of the knowledge of humanity and ideas. It’s very limiting.

8. Obligation to use the money of colonial France the FCFA. This is the real cash cow for France, such an evil system, is denounced by the European Union, but France is not ready to do without this colonial system that offers him a cash of about 500 billion dollars from Africa, by year.

During the introduction of the euro currency in Europe, other European countries have discovered the French operating system. Many, especially the Nordic countries, were appalled and suggested France to get rid of the system, but without success.

9. Obligation to send the annual balance and reserve report to France Without the report, no money. Be that as it may, the secretariat of the ex-colonies’ central banks, and the secretariat of the bi-annual meeting of finance ministers of the ex-colonies are insured by France’s central bank / Treasury.

10. Renunciation to enter a military alliance with any other country, unless authorized by France African countries in general are those with the fewest inter-state military alliances. Most countries only have military alliances with their ex-colonizers! (funny, but you can not do better!). In cases where they wish another alliance, France keeps them well to do so.

11. Obligation to ally with France in a situation of war or global crisis more than a million African soldiers fought for the defeat of Nazism and fascism during the Second World War.

Their contribution is often ignored or understated, but when you think that it took only 6 weeks for Germany to defeat France in 1940, France knows that Africans could be useful to keep the “Greatness of France” at home ‘to come up.

There is something almost psychopathic about France’s relationship with Africa. First of all, France is seriously addicted to the looting and exploitation of Africa since the time of slavery. Then there is the complete lack of creativity and imagination of the French elite to think beyond the past and the tradition.

Finally, France has two institutions that are completely frozen in the past, inhabited by paranoid and psychopathic “senior officials” who spread the fear of the apocalypse if France was to be changed, and whose ideological reference comes still romanticism of the 19th century. They are: the Minister of Finance and the Budget of France and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France.

These two institutions are not only a threat to Africa, but to the French themselves. It is up to us to liberate Africa, without asking permission, because I still cannot understand for example how 450 French soldiers in Côte d’Ivoire could control a population of 20 million people? The first reaction of people when they learn about the existence of French colonial tax is often a question: “Until when?”

As a historical comparison, France charged Haiti the modern equivalent of $ 21 billion from 1804 to 1947 (nearly a century and a half) for the losses caused to French slave traders following the abolition slavery and the liberation of Haitian slaves. African countries have been paying the colonial tax for the last 50 years!

How long do Africans have to wait to put an end to this great organized theft and slavery organized for several centuries?

Sincerely, nothing can be done by the African politician to change the situation until we the masses stop blaming our leaders and join in to fight the bigger monster who is our common enemy.

France is the devil… by Dignity. France is simply following the repugnant Charter of

Imperialism, but there is always an end to everything!

Bobby Quaquoo is a an African Journalist living in the diaspora.

Africa Condemns the Continuing Imperialist Legacy of France

By Abayomi Azikiwe 

Oct 21, 2021

Algerian government has recalled its ambassador from Paris while restricting its air space amid broad criticism of Macron’s foreign policy towards the continent

France for centuries had been involved in the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism making it one of the leading imperialist powers to emerge from the tumultuous conquering of large swaths of territory throughout the world.

It was against the rulers of France that the Africans on the island of Hispaniola won their national independence proclaiming the state of Haiti in 1804.

The enslaved Africans in Haiti waged a twelve-year revolutionary war that defeated France along with interventions by Spain and Britain. Haiti, the first Black Republic founded by former enslaved people, set the stage for the modern-day proliferation of neo-colonialism.

After independence under a world dominated by imperialism, the former colonial powers seek to dominate the oppressed peoples through economic and military means. Haiti was subjected to a blockade from both the United States and France during the early and middle decades of the 19th century. It was not until the Civil War in the U.S. that Haiti was recognized politically by Washington.

As early as 1825, France sent a flotilla of warships to the Caribbean to demand the payment of “indemnity” by Haiti to Paris for the loss of property and the profits which they would have accrued if the slave system had not been overthrown. Haiti had been the most prosperous of all the slave colonies during the 18th century.

Successive Haitian governments were forced to make payments to the former colonial power of France while its own economic development was stifled. France demanded from the people an arbitrary 150 million francs in unjustifiable claims over wealth which was stolen from the indigenous and African people victimized by European imperialism. The invented financial obligations to Paris were later reduced to 90 million francs in 1838. Today the value of these payments would exceed US$20 billion.

France refused to recognize Haiti if these payments were not made as the imperialist power collected the last indemnity payment in 1893. Subsequently, the government of the U.S. facilitated the acquisition of Haiti’s treasury in 1911. It would take until 1947 for Haiti to be released from the interest payments to the National City Bank of New York, now known as Citibank.

Today Haiti is still impacted by the legacy of French and U.S. interference in its internal affairs which involved several military occupations along with the exploitation of the labor of the people. The kidnapping of 17 missionaries from the U.S. and Canada during mid-October must be viewed within the broader context of the recent assassination of President Jovenal Moise, the deployment of Pentagon military forces to the embassy in Port-au-Prince, the deportation without due process of thousands of Haitian migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. and the failure of the Haitian politicians to establish a stable successor administration.

Algeria Withdraws Ambassador and Bans France from Using Air Space

Another major historical struggle against French imperialism occurred in the North African state of Algeria between 1954-1962. France had colonized Algeria beginning in 1830 exploiting its natural resources and the labor of its people.

France’s tenure in colonial Algeria left a trail of massacres as people continued to demand their fundamental human and political rights. By 1954, the most advanced elements in Algerian society took up arms against the occupying military and political elites. During the course of the war, reports indicate that more than one million Algerians lost their lives.

In recent weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron made statements which attempted to deny the brutal colonial legacy of Paris in Algeria. France formerly controlled many colonies in Africa including the modern-day states of Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Tunisia, Congo-Brazzaville, Madagascar, among others.

In response the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune withdrew the country’s ambassador from France. Later it was announced that the French military would not be allowed to utilize Algerian airspace. The tensions between the two countries had worsened as well due to the hosting of a reception to honor those Algerians who fought against their own people on behalf of France during the revolutionary war of the 1950s and early 1960s.

Al Jazeera reported on the diplomatic row saying: “The moves also come amid tension over a French decision to sharply reduce the number of visas it grants to citizens of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. ‘Following remarks that have not been denied, which several French sources have attributed by name to [Macron], Algeria expresses its categorical rejection of the inadmissible interference in its internal affairs,’ the statement said, adding the French comments were ‘an intolerable affront’ to Algerians who died fighting French colonialism. ‘The crimes of colonial France in Algeria are innumerable and fit the strictest definitions of genocide,’ it said. French daily Le Monde reported that Macron made critical remarks about Algeria during a meeting on Thursday (October 7) with French Algerian descendants of the Harkis, Algerians who fought on the French side during Algeria’s war of independence. According to Le Monde, Macron said Algeria was ruled by a ‘political-military system’ and described the country’s ‘official history’ as having been ‘totally re-written’ to something ‘not based on truths’ but ‘on a discourse of hatred towards France.’ The newspaper added the French president made clear he was not referring to Algerian society as a whole but to the ruling elite.” (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/3/algeria-blasts-french-leader-recalls-ambassador-from-france)

On October 17, France recognized its role in a massacre of Algerians in Paris in 1961. The Algerians were demonstrating in alliance with the National Liberation Front (FLN) which led the mass and armed struggle against French colonialism. 60 years ago, the French police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators killing at least 120, injuring and arresting many more.

A report published by the Associated Press stressed: “’The repression was brutal, violent, bloody’ under the orders of Paris police chief Maurice Papon, Macron said in a statement released Saturday (Oct. 16). About 12,000 Algerians were arrested and dozens were killed, ‘their bodies thrown into the Seine River,’ the statement said…. Papon later became the highest-ranking Frenchman convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in deporting Jews during World War II…. The Movement against Fascism and for Friendship between People, or MRAP, deplored that Macron’s statement did not include ‘any word about the context of the Algeria war, any word on colonialism, nothing about archives… even less about reparations.’ Earlier this year, Macron announced a decision to speed up the declassification of secret documents related to Algeria’s 1954-62 war of independence from France. The new procedure was introduced in August, Macron’s office said.” (https://apnews.com/article/europe-france-crime-paris-4dbcbb6255aadb591f5a8ee6503bf325)

Rather than improving the post-colonial relationship between Paris and Algiers, Macron appears to be making it worse. Such a set of affairs in recent weeks indicates the unsustainability of French foreign policy in Africa going forward.

Other Attacks on French Neo-colonialism

The politico-military crises of governance in the West African states of Mali and Guinea are further indications of the inability of France to maintain a consistent diplomatic approach to its former colonies. Over the period since 2020, there have been two military coups in Mali and another one in Guinea.

Those involved in the military seizures of power from civilian governments had maintained close ties with the French and U.S. governments. The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has operations inside Guinea and Mali as well as several other countries in the West Africa region.

Pentagon defense colleges have provided training to the military coup makers in Mali and Guinea. The current military president of Guinea, Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, was a former member of the French Foreign Legion and at the time of the coup in early September, he was involved as a special forces officer in maneuvers with AFRICOM forces. Although the U.S. and France claim that their governments had no involvement in the coup, their approach to the new military regime has been largely the same as before the putsch.

The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), composed of 15 member-states, has been rebuked by both the Guinean and Malian military leaders. Business interests based in France and the U.S. conducting mining operations in Guinea, have not paused their economic activities.

Yet two interesting events have occurred in recent weeks that should be viewed alongside the diplomatic struggle between Algeria and France. An Africa-France Summit was held in early October in Montpellier where youth confronted Macron over his policies towards the continent.

Radio France International (RFI) reported on this event noting that: “Kenyan civil society member Adele Onyango asked Macron to look at France’s troubled relationship with Africa, demanding an examination of inefficiencies, gaps in integrity, and unethical behavior. ‘We as Africans feel the pain of colonization every single day,’ Onyango said. ‘The air of denial that France chooses to sit in is uncomfortable not only for Africa but also for France… How can you trust the source of your pain when the source doesn’t acknowledge it?’ she added. Onyango evoked what she considered France’s double standard—claiming to stand for human rights, while collaborating with agencies, leaders and individuals whose position on a wide range of societal issues in Africa is less than clear.” (https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20211009-african-youth-speak-their-truth-directly-to-france-s-macron-at-the-france-summit)

Finally, a military-appointed prime minister in Mali on October 8 accused France of training a terrorist organization inside its territory. This grouping was said to have been instrumental in the post-2011 destabilization of neighboring Libya, where a Pentagon-NATO bombing campaign resulted in the destruction of the government of the late leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi who was killed at the aegis of Washington a decade ago on October 20.

Pars Today reported on the allegation emphasizing: “Mali’s Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga told Sputnik on Friday (Oct. 8) that French troops had created an enclave in Kidal, a town in the desert region of northern Mali, and handed it over to a terrorist group known as Ansar al-Din. ‘Mali has no access to Kidal, this is an enclave controlled by France,’ he said, adding that the Malian military was banned from entering the territory. ‘They have armed groups trained by French officers. We have evidence… We do not understand this situation and do not want to tolerate it,’ the Malian prime minister said. Maiga further said that the alleged terrorists that are operating in the country ‘came from Libya, and who destroyed the state of Libya? It was France with allies.’” (https://parstoday.com/en/news/world-i154648mali_accuses_france_of_training_terrorists%E2%80%99_in_country)

Therefore, from the youth to those aligned with the African military juntas see the contradictions within French foreign policy. It will be up to the masses of people around the world to unite against this colonial and neo-colonial project bringing it to a resounding conclusion.

Central African Republic Rebels Advance While Protests Take Place at French Embassy

Map of Central African Republic where rebels have made advances toward the capital of Bangui. Supporters of President Francois Bozize want intervention by France to stop the rebel advances., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Protesters throw stones at French Embassy in Central African Republic as rebels advance

By Associated Press
Wednesday, December 26, 5:54 PM

BANGUI, Central African Republic — Angry protesters carrying clubs threw rocks at the French Embassy in Central African Republic on Wednesday, criticizing the former colonial power for failing to do more to stem a rapid rebel advance as fears grew that the insurgents aim to seize the capital.

The demonstrations began earlier in the day outside the U.S. Embassy before about 100 protesters then took to the French Embassy, carrying pieces of cardboard with messages that read: “No to war! No to France!”

“It’s France who colonized us — they should support us until the end. Unfortunately, they have done nothing. In this case, we are merely asking purely and simply that they leave our country,” shouted one young demonstrator in front of the French mission in Bangui.

The protesters then began stopping cars to verify whether any foreign nationals were inside.

“These people have taken down the French flag from its pole and removed it,” said Serge Mucetti, the French ambassador to Central African Republic. “They have carried out stone-throwing in the area of the embassy and have broken windows. This kind of behavior is unacceptable.”

Air France confirmed Wednesday that its once-a-week flight to Bangui turned back because of protests at the French Embassy. The decision was made independently by Air France, and the French government did not make the request, said an airline spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because company policy did not authorize her to speak on the record.

The French foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many fear that Bangui, a city of about 600,000 people, could be the scene of a battle between government forces and the rebels. The fighters already have seized at least 10 towns, meeting little resistance from soldiers.

Rebel Col. Djouma Narkoyo said Wednesday that his forces have continued taking towns in recent days because government forces are attacking their positions. But, he insisted via phone: “Our intention is not to take Bangui. We still remain open to dialogue.”

Bangui residents were skeptical of the insurgents’ intentions.

“We are afraid by what we see happening in our country right now,” said Leon Modomale, a civil servant in the capital. “It’s as if the rebels are going to arrive in Bangui any moment now because there are too many contradictions in their language.”

The rebel advance began earlier this month, with a push by the Union for the Democratic Forces for Unity, known by its French acronym of UFDR. The group signed an April 13, 2007, peace accord, which paved the way for the fighters to join the regular army, but the group’s leaders say the deal was never properly implemented.

Central African Republic is a desperately poor, landlocked country that has suffered numerous rebellions since independence from France. Despite the nation’s wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, the government remains perpetually cash-strapped.

U.S. special forces troops have deployed to Central African Republic among other countries in the region in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the fugitive rebel leader of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army.

Associated Press Writer Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.


Protest at Central Africa French Embassy Turns Violent

by Naharnet Newsdesk

Angry demonstrators hurled projectiles and tore down the French flag at France's embassy in the Central African Republic capital Bangui on Wednesday, protesting at a lack of help to deter rebels who have occupied a large swathe of the country.

Former colonial power France "has the tendency to abandon us," a protester said as the group arrived from an earlier sit-in outside the U.S. embassy. "We no longer need France, France may as well take its embassy and leave."

Protesters close to embattled President Francois Bozize had begun their U.S. embassy protest chanting calls for peace just as rebels approaching Bangui called on forces loyal to Bozize to lay down their arms.

But the peaceful protest moved to the French embassy where the mood turned violent and demonstrators broke windows and pulled down the French flag.

"This situation is completely unacceptable," said French ambassador Serge Mucetti.

"I ask the government of the Central African Republic to respect the appropriate agreements on this matter. Those who acted in such a manner are enemies of the Central African Republic," he said.

A student demonstrator at the scene accused France of "not respecting defense agreements" linking the two countries.

The offices of Air France were also attacked, an AFP reporter witnessed.

Since the end of colonization in the 1960s, French troops stationed in western Africa have often come to the help of former colonies whose regimes were on the verge of being toppled.

The Seleka rebel coalition now controls large swathes of the north and the east of the country.

Neighboring Chad has sent troops into the country after a request from Bozize to try and stem the rebel advance.

Seleka is made up of rebels who say the government has not honored peace accords signed between 2007 and 2011, which offered financial support and other help for insurgents who laid down their arms.

Source: Agence France Presse


Violent protests erupt at French embassy in Bangui

By FRANCE 24
26/12/2012 - 15:35

French forces deployed around France's embassy in the Central African Republic on Wednesday after protesters angered by a rebel advance in the north of the country hurled stones at the building and tore down the French flag.

Violent protests erupted Wednesday in front of the French embassy in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, with hundreds of angry demonstrators hurling projectiles, burning tires and vandalising the building’s entrance.

France's Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French troops were promptly deployed around the embassy's compound, "securing" the area and "restoring calm".

Earlier, a FRANCE 24 Observer speaking from within the embassy compound said the clashes had begun around 9am local time. "It started with shouts, slogans and angry posters, then stones were thrown at the building, smashing several windows," he said. "The situation was chaotic, CAR troops were patrolling but none intervened. Some protesters managed to scale the gates and snatch the French flag."

An embassy source told FRANCE 24 that around 50 people, including women and children, were barricaded inside the compound.

Anti-French sentiment

Demonstrators said they were angry at France for failing to help the army fight off rebel forces, who have occupied a large swathe of the country. Some even accused the former colonial power of siding with the insurgency.

FRANCE 24’s International Affairs Editor, Douglas Herbert, said the perceived failure of France to act had caused tensions. “'Why are they just sitting there not doing anything while rebels advance very steadily on the capital?' is a sentiment felt by some," he said.

“There’s a paradox here because a lot of them feel like they’ve been abandoned by France…and some feel that France is actively backing the rebellion itself.”

The rebels, known as the Seleka alliance, have in recent weeks taken a string of towns in the north of the land-locked country, which has been mostly unstable since independence from France in 1960.

“We are here at the French Embassy because it is France who colonised us. France has the tendency to abandon us. We don’t need France anymore; France may as well take its embassy and leave,” one protester told the AFP.

'Completely unacceptable'

France's ambassador to the country, Serge Mucetti, urged local authorities to take decisive action over the events, which he described as "completely unacceptable".

"I ask the government of the Central African Republic to respect the appropriate agreements on this matter. Those who acted in such a manner are enemies of the Central African Republic," he said.

President François Bozize of the Central African Republic came to power in 2003 after a brief war and has repeatedly relied on foreign interventions to fend off rebellions and the spill-over from conflict in neighbouring Chad and Sudan.

With rebel forces just 75km north of the capital, he is more reliant on than other on help from abroad.

(FRANCE 24 with wires)
---------------------------------------------------
Source URL: http://www.france24.com/en/20121226-central-african-republic-violent-protests-french-embassy


Cholera epidemic hits Central African Republic

Created 2011-10-08 15:58
By RFI

A cholera epidemic has claimed 16 lives in the Central African Republic, according to a health ministry spokesman. The latest reports show 57 cases and 16 deaths from the illness, which has reached the capital city of Bangui.

A hospital official in Bangui said on Saturday that four cases had been declared in the capital, and that the Red Cross has intervened.

Another health services source said that cholera had killed six people in the Limbo region.

Health Minister Jean-Michel Mandaba announced on 30 September that the death toll had reached at least 10 in the southern regions of Ombella-Mpoko and Lobaye.

The outbreak comes two months after health officials warned of a potential cholera epidemic, after finding the presence of the disease in nearby countries.

France Makes Bid in New 'Scramble for Africa'

Franco-African Summit protest in 2003 over the disappearance of 35 journalists. The French are making their own bid for strategic dominance in Africa.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos.

France in bid to salvage waning ties to Africa

France is hosting its 24th Franco-African summit this week as critics slam its role in the region

By Scott Baldauf
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Following hard on the heels of Chinese President Hu Jintao's eight-nation tour of Africa last week and the US announcement that it will create a new military command for Africa, the Franco-African summit in the swanky city of Cannes, France, shows that the scramble for Africa is picking up pace.

With more than 30 African heads of state and representatives from nearly all of the 53 nations of the continent attending, the 24th Franco-African summit is an attempt to reassure France's former colonies – and any other African countries that are interested – that France will continue to champion African causes on the global stage, such as development aid, debt relief, and greater access to global markets.

But at a time of increasing competition from Chinese, American, Indian, and South African players in search of African resources, France is finding that "la francophonie" – the language, culture, and history it shares with its former colonies – is a harder sell. France is also fending off increased criticism over its tendency to put relations with allied African regimes above good governance.

"France has traditionally had difficulty letting go of its colonies, and has meddled heavily and propped up its former colonies," says Ross Herbert, a political analyst at the South African Institute for International Affairs in Johannesburg. As a result, "Francophone countries in Africa have largely delayed the kinds of political reforms that English-speaking countries did 15 years ago, and so you see a lot of anti-democratic behavior prevailing among their leaders, and corruption, and economic and political decay."

History of the summits

Started nearly 50 years ago as a continuing dialogue with its former French-speaking colonies, the Franco-African summits once were gatherings of newly independent leaders and their former colonial masters. France often promised material and military aid to prop up unelected leaders, some of whom ruled for decades, in return for a continuation of trade relationships that allowed French companies to remain in Africa.

France even created a separate currency for its former colonies – the Communauté Française d'Afrique franc – to facilitate this trade.

Many African analysts are quick to point out that France's faults in Africa are similar to those of most colonial powers, and even other players, such as the US and China. "For the average African, the state is the enemy," says Richard Cornwell, a political analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. "But very often, outside countries, such as France and China, tend to strengthen the state, which is the exact opposite of what the Africans want and need."

While France reduced the number of French bases on the continent from nine in the 1960s to its current three (in Djibouti, Chad, and Senegal), France's bilateral military relationships with many former colonies have left a black mark on its postcolonial history.

Military meddling leaves sour taste

Current examples of this are found in Ivory Coast, where French military battled national forces after the government of President Laurent Gbagbo launched a military raid that killed nine French peacekeepers in 2004. With French forces now at a stalemate in that country, enforcing arms embargos and travel bans, some security experts call this mission "France's little Iraq."

More troubling to critics of France's role in Africa was France's support of Rwanda's former Hutu-dominated government in the early 1990s, even after evidence that government supporters – on radio, in newspapers, and in churches – were announcing publicly their preparations to wipe out the Tutsi minority in 1994. Even after the genocide began, many experts alleged that France still airlifted military supplies to the government that was behind the killing of Tutsis. More than 800,000 Tutsis were killed.

This past fall, a French judge went so far as to issue international arrest warrants for nine close aides of President Paul Kagame, citing evidence that it was Kagame's Tutsi forces that shot down Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane in 1994.

Mr. Kagame is not among the attendants of the Cannes summit. In fact, Kagame cut diplomatic ties with France in November, and has since applied for membership in the Commonwealth, a group of Britain's former colonies.

African protesters, along with international aid organizations, led protests outside of the Cannes summit this week, and France's ties with illiberal African regimes has become a hot-button topic in the ongoing presidential race to replace President Jacques Chirac.

"By favoring personal friendships to the detriment of the general interest, the presidential practice has tarnished the image of our country, which is associated in African minds with the most questionable regimes on the continent," wrote French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, in an editorial for the Témoignage Chrétien, a Catholic weekly.

French diplomats argue that such criticism betrays the complexities of some of Africa's conflicts and paints an unfair picture of France's overall policy toward Africa.

"Now we are trying to build these summits around the idea of how Africa figures into the balance of the world," says a French diplomat in Africa, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The issues that pertain to most Africans are how you deal with mineral wealth of Africa, to make sure that it is not going into shady deals or funding wars, but instead make sure that a percentage of it gets back to the populations."

On a broader level, Africans may be finding more common ground with their former colonial masters, who at least appear to be voicing their own fears about more immediate concerns, such as America's increasing willingness to go it alone, and topple governments in the name of democracy.

"France is not innocent, both in terms of past colonial history and even in the present time, in places like Ivory Coast and Rwanda," says Peter Kagwanja, director of the democracy and governance programs at the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria. "But on balance, France seems to be striking a chord with the weaker nations of the world, which feel vulnerable to the democratic militarism, the export of democracy via the gun."

Africans are saying, 'We would like to associate with the demands ... for multilateralism, for a consensus between the weak nations and the strong,' says Mr. Kagwanja. "At this point in history, France is on the right side of the global opinion."

ECOWAS, Democracy, and the Presidential Election Tribunal in Nigeria

By HAJIYA NAJATU MUHAMMAD

Nigerian National Accord

August 7, 2023

Recent events in the affairs of our nation, most especially the risk of destabilising the entire West African region by the ECOWAS leaders necessitates the need to once again speak out and to call on all Nigerians to stand united in calling the ECOWAS leaders to order by denouncing violence, and by addressing the devastating consequences of war on human lives and societies.

The call for a military intervention in Niger Republic (“Niger”) to reverse a coup in Niger is nothing short of a declaration of war against the Niger Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Republic of Guinea by the ECOWAS on behalf of foreign colonial interest. Such despicable action in the name of democracy is not only condemnable but also unacceptable.

Democracy is not a one size fits all model, and democracy is not a hypocritical agenda that is to used by interested parties to advance their personal interest at the time of their choosing for their personal benefits.

To discuss the issue of democracy in the ECOWAS region means accepting that democracy even exist in the ECOWAS region. For us to truly understand what is going on in Nigeria and the ECOWAS today, we must look deeper and beyond the obvious by dissecting the interest of all parties involved.

The first party and interest that needs to be highlighted is France. A colonial power that has instigated over 60 coup and coup attempts on the African continent from 1960 to date. As a former colonial power, France has supported the most undemocratic regimes on the African continent to date in order to continue to exploit the resources of these African countries.

This so called ECOWAS military operation to protect democracy in Niger is nothing short of a joke taken too far. While the world is being distracted with the drum beat of war against Niger

Republic, one of the ECOWAS leaders – the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, dissolved the main opposition party, Pastef, ahead of the February 2024 general election in Senegal and the opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, who is set to win the Presidential election with a large margin was arrested, with hundreds of his protesting supporters killed and maimed by government forces. 

All these unfortunate “democratic” events happened in the past one week alone, while we are all being distracted with the coup in Niger Republic. France has not said a word and ECOWAS has not declared war on Senegal. This is tantamount to Peter Obi’s Labour

Party or Atiku Abubakar’s PDP being dissolved, and the two opposition leaders arrested while hundreds of their supporters killed or maimed by the security forces under the cover of France and its allies.

In Togo, another Francophone ECOWAS country backed by France, there was widespread protest for a whole year against the 55 years unconstitutional rule of father and son, Gnassingbe.

Eyadema and Faure Gnassingbe. The father ruled Togo with an iron fist for 37 years until his death in 2005, after which the son took over the helms of affairs and has been in power for 18 years despite the two term limit set in Togo’s 1992 constitution. France and the ECOWAS continue to support the dictator just as they did his father for 37 years. Dear Nigerians, is this the type of democracy France wants to force on Nigeria and Nigerians?

In the Republic of Guinea (where Tinubu obtained citizenship by swearing allegiance to another country that is also a french colony, hence making him ineligible to contest the 2023 presidential election), Alpha Conde, the then President of Guinea was toppled by a military coup one year into his THIRD term in office. Alpha Conde was supported by France and the ECOWAS until a military coup toppled his “democratic” government.

In Ivory Coast, French soldiers matched to the capital and arrested President Laurent Gbagbo in 2011. He was physically dragged out of the presidential palace by French soldiers for being “undemocratic”. He was replaced as President of Ivory Coast with Alhassan Outtara. Today Outtara has forced his way to an unconstitutional 3rd term as President of Ivory Coast despite unending protest by the people of Ivory Coast. He continues to be backed and supported by France and French forces.

In Gabon, another francophone country – though not a member of ECOWAS, Omar Bongo , who served in the French Military ruled the country for 42 years under the protection of France. Upon his death in 2009, his son Ali Bongo took over and has been the President of Gabon for the past 14 years with the support of France. The wife of Ali Bongo bought a mansion in Los Angeles for $25 million. That is equivalent to 21 billion Naira or 15 billion CFA. All under the protection and support of France.

Today in Nigeria, we have Tinubu being supported by France after the most controversial election declaration in the history of our country. I must remind Nigerians that Tinubu visited France before the primary elections. He visited France after the Primary elections. He again visited France before the general elections, and after the general elections. Emmanuel Macron, the President of France was the first President to congratulate Tinubu despite the fact that the European Union Observation Mission report condemned the 2023 general election. It is therefore not surprising that after his swearing in, the first country Tinubu visited as President is France.

Nigerians need to know what France wants from Tinubu and from Nigeria. We also want to know what Tinubu wants from France in return? The overzealousness in cutting electricity supply to Niger and shutting our border with Niger is not just baffling but utterly undiplomatic and a clear sign of incompetence.

Is sending our troops to Niger without meeting the constitutional requirement democratic? Section 5 (4) (a) of the 1999 constitution, as amended states that the President cannot declare a state of war between Nigeria and any other country except with the approval of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, sitting in a joint session.

Moreover, is the coup in Niger Republic an imminent threat to Nigeria’s national security? Is Niger not a sovereign state guaranteed under the UN Charter?

The ECOWAS military intervention in Niger is just another smoke screen and a distraction from the current travails of Tinubu in the Presidential Election Tribunal, just as it is for Senegal’s Macky Sall, and his french backed security forces.

If Nigeria is at war, Tinubu can declare a state of emergency or a martial law that will allow him to remain in power indefinitely, putting aside any tribunal or judicial process challenging his eligibility to even contest the election. With the backing of France and other colonial powers, he will deploy security forces to quail any form of protest to his undemocratic and unconstitutional machinations. Tinubu is aware that he is not eligible to contest. The tribunal judges know this, APC as a political party also knows this. So why is Tinubu so eager to go to war on behalf of France and with the backing of France in the name of democracy? In France, are democratic presidential election results announced at 3am? Did Emmanuel Macron of France encourage his supporters to “snatch it and grab it”?

Furthermore, why is APC and Tinubu talking about a rerun as the outcome of the presidential election tribunal? Do they already know the outcome of the Presidential Tribunal’s sitting? Is there a channel of communication between the Presidential Election Tribunal and Tinubu/APC?

Anything short of disqualifying Tinubu by the Presidential Election Tribunal will be tantamount to the destruction of Nigeria as a sovereign state by the judiciary. This will be most unfortunate as our generation has continued to fail young Nigerians and their children.

Although most Nigerians see the Judiciary as an untrustworthy arm of government, we will continue to demand for justice and we will continue to hold the tribunal to account as our future, the future of our country, and the future of our children is being toiled with by international colonial players and their local benefactors.

The panel of 5 judges that are presiding over the Presidential Election Tribunal are not only representing the judiciary, but they are also a representation of Nigeria as a sovereign andunified state as each and everyone one of the 5 judges is a reflection and a representation of at least 5 out of the 6 geopolitical zones; Hon. Justice Haruna Tsammani – North East, Hon. Justice Stephen Jonah Adah – North Central, Hon. Justice Mistura Omodere Bolaji-Yusuf – South West, Hon. Justice Boloukuoromo Moses Ugo – South South, and Hon. Justice Abba Bello Mohammed – North West.

In just 60 days in office, Tinubu has created unimaginable chaos throughout Nigeria. I hope that INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu is seeing everything that is happening in Nigeria today. Yakubu will forever remain a pariah in Nigeria for generations to come. I hope he is happy with the legacy that he has left his children and grandchildren.

Finally, I want to make it categorically clear that ECOWAS is now simply a cult for undemocratic leaders desperately trying to hold onto power on behalf of colonial interest. However, Nigeria has come of age and despite multiple attempts on my life, despite seven surgeries due to being poisoned, despite being jailed multiple times, despite my husband being chopped to pieces and burnt alive, I NAJATU MUHAMMAD will continue to fight for a better Nigeria and a free Africa. The fight for justice and freedom is eternal. I call on all Nigerians to do the same because I am definitely not a coward. Justice and freedom is not for the weak.

Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Israeli PM's Remarks on Paris Attacks Spark Tensions in French-Israeli Ties

French security forces patrol Jewish communities.

Bassem Aly, Thursday 15 Jan 2015
Ahram Online

Binyamin Netanyahu's comments to Jews in France that 'the State of Israel is your home' ruffle feathers in the Elysee Palace

Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu's call for French Jews — who represent around two percent of France's 66-million population — to think of Israel as "home," and his attendance, against Paris's wishes, at the Sunday anti-terrorism rally led by world leaders in the French capital has caused unease in relations between France and Israel.

The story began with the killing of four Jews by Amedy Coulibaly, a jihadist, in a kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris. The incident occurred as French security forces were hunting the gunmen who killed 12 people in an attack on the country's best-known satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, a day earlier.

French authorities, in response, deployed 10,000 troops to protect "sensitive sites." About 4,700 police have been assigned the task of safeguarding Jewish institutions, mainly schools and synagogues.

At this point, Israel decided to comment on the matter through its prime minister. "To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray; the State of Israel is your home," Netanyahu said in a statement Saturday.

According to AFP, Netanyahu made a similar statement during a visit to France last October.

Netanyahu's words apparently irked French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who asserted that "France, without Jews, is not France."

Speaking outside the Jewish supermarket that was attacked in Paris, Valls said that the "Jews of France, for several years, have been frightened." But asserted that "Today, we are Charlie, all police officers, all the Jews of France."

Jewish leading figures in France met with President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace on Sunday.

Hollande said he will count on the military to protect Jewish possessions if needed. Fifty world leaders joined more than one million people in an anti-terrorism rally in Paris — as well as different parts of France — Sunday. Netanyahu was one of these heads of state. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Economy Minister Naftali Bennet travelled to Paris with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu delivered a speech at a Paris synagogue after the march in a ceremony in which Hollande, Valls and ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy took part. Nevertheless, the French president was reportedly not entirely comfortable with Netanyahu's presence in the march.

An Israeli source, involved in connections between Paris and Tel Aviv, said that Hollande sent a message to Netanyahu not to visit Paris and join the rally, Israel's Haaretz reported Monday. The source pointed out that Hollande's national security adviser, Jacques Audibert delivered, this message to Israel through his Israeli counterpart Yossi Cohen.

The top-level Israeli official argued that Hollande "wanted the event to focus on demonstrating solidarity with France" and "avoid anything liable to divert attention to other controversial issues, like Jewish-Muslim relations or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

In Jerusalem, the four killed Jewish men were buried in a funeral attended by thousands of Israeli citizens and political leaders. French Energy Minister Ségolène Royal attended the funeral as a representative of the French government. Announcing that the killed Jews would be awarded France's Legion of Honour, Royal emphasised that France "is proud to hold the largest population of Jews in Europe."

President of the Consistoire, under the umbrella of which all Jewish organisations in France work, met with 20 European Jewish figures at Israeli's Knesset Tuesday. “In the past, we said we don’t need Israel’s help. The opposite was true; we supported Israel. The situation changed and today the Jews of France need the State of Israel’s help," The Jerusalem Post quoted Joel Margi as saying.

Margi claimed that Jews in France are in a "difficult situation" and added that it is "hard to describe how afraid our children are to go to Jewish schools in France."

How France will address the fears of its Jewish community is yet to be seen.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/120300.aspx

France’s Waning Influence in Coup-hit Africa Appears Clear While Few Remember Their Former Colonizer

BY JAMEY KEATEN, SAM MEDNICK AND CARA ANNA

3:22 AM EDT, September 4, 2023

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — When Gabon’s longtime leader was detained in the latest coup in Africa last week, France condemned the takeover but did little to intervene — despite having hundreds of troops in the country. It was a striking break from the past.

African and French observers say that France, under pressure, is finally shedding its postcolonial tradition of “Françafrique” — an unflattering term that smacks of paternalistic influence and quiet deal-making among elites — as its economic and political powers wane and an increasingly self-confident Africa looks elsewhere.

After repeated military interventions in its former colonies in recent decades, the era of France as Africa’s “gendarme” may finally be over.

“In the old days of ‘Françafrique,’ this coup would not have happened and, if it did, it would have been quickly reversed,” Peter Pham, a former U.S. envoy for Africa’s Sahel region, said of France’s “muted response” to the coup in Gabon. “Even more than ( the Niger coup in July ), French inaction underscores that the times have changed — Gabon was long the centerpiece of the old cozy postcolonial system.”

In the last three years, a common thread has linked coups in four African countries: All were once French colonies. Some, like Gabon, had continued warm relations. Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has ruled the small oil-rich country for more than 50 years, last met with with French President Emmanuel Macron in June in Paris.

But a new strain of anti-France sentiment has emerged elsewhere. Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group has cozied up to power brokers in places like Central African Republic. China has eclipsed France’s economic influence in Africa. Some former French colonies are joining the Commonwealth, despite no past links to British rule.

For decades after decolonization, France continued to pull strings and reap benefits in Africa. At times, the heavy-handed influence sparked opposition, but French-backed leaders often returned to power.

Such efforts are now pulling back. Macron last year withdrew French troops from Mali following tensions with the ruling junta after a 2020 coup, and more recently from Burkina Faso, for similar reasons. Both African countries had asked for the French forces to leave.

France also suspended military operations with Central African Republic, accusing its government of failing to stop a “massive” anti-French disinformation campaign.

Macron, in a speech last week to French diplomats, decried “an epidemic of putsches” in the Sahel region.

Macron’s predecessors, including François Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand, had all launched new French military operations on the African continent. Macron did not.

Macron, the first French president born after the end of colonial era, has made it clear that France has turned the page of postcolonial interventionism. But even though the word “partnership” has been Macron’s rallying cry in Africa, some ill feeling lingers.

“France stirs up conflict in Central African Republic and is putting pressure on authorities to not bring forth real development policies,” said Anicet L’appel, publisher of the local Adrenaline Info, seen as close to the government that has been gravitating toward Russian interests in recent years.

In Gabon, the Bongo family has had deep and enduring ties to France for generations. Writer and analyst Thomas Borrel called it “emblematic” of Françafrique — a local dynasty marked by corruption, French business ties and a vague guise of democratic practices.

The late Jacques Foccart, a shadowy French high-ranking bureaucrat known as “Monsieur Afrique” for his efforts to keep former French colonies close, recalled in his memoirs how in the mid-1980s, the younger Bongo quietly floated in Paris the idea to set up constitutional monarchy in Gabon. The French laughed it off.

Macron has said nothing publicly about Gabon since the coup.

Several longtime leaders of former French colonies are still standing and have a collective 122 years in office: Cameroon’s Paul Biya with 41, Republic of Congo’s Denis Sassou Nguesso with 39; Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh with 24; and Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe with 18.

Seidik Abba, a Nigerien researcher, said it’s been slightly lost on France that Africa has changed and Paris isn’t the only global power available.

“The former colonies are looking (out) for their interests. They’re not looking at their history with France,” said Abba, who is president of the International Center for Reflection for Studies on the Sahel, a Paris-based think tank. “The diplomats and other officials continue to consider that they have exclusive relations with African countries.”

But many French connections remain, even in coup-affected countries.

“It’s tempting to talk about an end to Françafrique,” said Borrel, a spokesperson for Survie, an advocacy group that denounces France’s postcolonial policies in Africa. “Françafrique is characterized by institutions still in place — French troops still in Africa; the CFA franc currency; and a French paternalistic culture that must be changed, including at the summit of the French state.”

Today, France retains more than 5,500 troops across six African countries, including more than 3,000 in permanent bases in Gabon, Djibouti, Senegal and Ivory Coast, plus about 2,500 involved in its military operation in Chad and Niger.

France has maintained its troops in Niger even though mutinous soldiers ousted President Mohamed Bazoum more than a month ago. On Thursday, the junta revoked the diplomatic immunity of the French ambassador, who has ignored their order that he leave.

In neighboring Mali, many soured on the French troop presence after it failed to rid their country of Islamic extremist fighters. Pro-Russia groups on social media fomented the disgruntlement.

“Their departure from Mali is a good thing, because our soldiers and their Russian allies are going to effectively fight the terrorists,” said Timbuktu resident Harber Cissé, alluding to what European officials say is the presence of Wagner Group fighters in Mali.

The changing sentiments also reflect a simple fact: Today, the vast majority of Africans are too young to have lived under French rule. Much of Francophone Africa won independence in 1960. The last French colony, Djibouti, became independent in 1977.

Guelleh, the Djibouti president, appeared to finally sense a growing threat of coups in Francophone countries after the events in Gabon, denouncing it in the strongest terms. In Rwanda, longtime President Paul Kagame “accepted the resignation” of a dozen generals in an abrupt security shake-up. Cameroon’s even more veteran president, Biya, did likewise the same day.

Perhaps the most significant drift in Africa is a cultural one. France simply doesn’t serve up the aspirations it once did.

France “was the land of prestige,” Djibouti-born poet Chehem Watta, 60, told Le Monde this year as part of a project exploring the changing France-Africa relationship. But over the years, shrinking French funding and military presence, along with tightening visa restrictions, “tarnished” France’s image, he said.

In Abidjan, university student Laurent Wassa of Félix Houphouët-Boigny University — named for a French lawmaker who became Ivory Coast’s first postcolonial president — said he stopped wanting to study in France, because he thinks the quality of education he would receive has gone down based on what he’s heard.

“Studying in France isn’t as much of a dream as it used to be,” he said. He’d prefer a scholarship in China.

Antoine Glaser, a journalist whose 2021 book translates as “Macron’s African trap,” said that Africans are dictating the changing relationship.

“It’s not a French president who’s going to decree the end of Françafrique, that’s useless,” he said. “It’s Africa that’s going to straighten up France when it comes to paternalism, and getting a new perspective.”

___

Keaten reported from Geneva and Cara Anna from Nairobi, Kenya. Associated Press writers Jean Fernand Koena in Bangui, Central African Republic, Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali, Toussaint N’Gotta in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and Sylvie Corbet and Oleg Cetinic in Paris contributed to this report.

France Sets its Military Goals as War is Back in Europe

By SYLVIE CORBET

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech at the French Navy base of Toulon, southern France, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022. Emmanuel Macron unveils the country's military strategy through the end of the decade for his nuclear-armed country, in the midst of Russia's war in Ukraine. (Eric Gaillard, Pool via AP)

PARIS (AP) — President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that France’s military strategy must strengthen the country as an independent, respected nuclear-armed power through the end of the decade, warning against a risk of escalation and other global effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Europe is not sheltered anymore from missile and drone strikes. And we must integrate this reality,” Macron said, speaking on the Dixmude helicopter carrier, docked in the Mediterranean military base of Toulon which is home to more than 24,000 troops.

Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine “may precede broader geopolitical rivalries and a future that we have no reason to accept with fatalism,” Macron said, as he unveiled France’s “national strategic review,” meant to define how the country’s defense will look in 2030.

France wants to be an “independent, respected, agile power at the heart of the European strategic autonomy” with strong links to the Atlantic alliance, Macron said.

As war is back on the European continent, France wants to focus on boosting the European Union’s defense capacity building — the bloc of 27 nations’ security is still largely dependent on the U.S. and NATO.

“When peace is back in Ukraine, we will need to assess all the consequences” via a “new security architecture” on the continent, Macron said.

He insisted a “credible, modern” nuclear deterrence is key. France is the only EU country with nuclear weapons.

Macron was to be flown Wednesday afternoon to France’s newest nuclear attack submarine, the Suffren, before meeting later in the day with elite Navy commando members.

“Our nuclear forces contribute through their own existence to the security of France and Europe,” he said.

In rare public comments on the issue, Macron recently suggested a potential nuclear ballistic attack from Russia in the region would not bring any nuclear response from Paris. France’s doctrine “is based on what we call the fundamental interests of the nation. ... They would not at all be at stake” in such a situation, he said on French television last month.

Macron also insisted Wednesday that European security efforts will make the Atlantic alliance stronger. France deployed over 1,000 troops mostly in Romania and Estonia as part of NATO’s Rapid Reaction Force following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

France’s new strategic document provides that the country will maintain a “capacity to lead military operations, including those of high intensity, alone or within a coalition.”

French troops will maintain their large presence abroad in an area stretching from sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East, through the Horn of Africa, Macron said.

He said France will launch talks in coming days with its African partners and regional organizations to make changes to the “status, format and missions of the current French military bases in the Sahel and West Africa.” A new organization, based on cooperation between French and local armed forces, will be finalized within six months of the discussions, he said.

Macron’s speech marks the formal end of the so-called Barkhane force after France withdrew its troops from Mali earlier this year following tensions with the ruling military regime.

French operations to help fighting Islamic extremists in the Sahel region are focusing on Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, where the country has about 3,000 troops.

In addition, Macron said France’s military strategy will include a new, specific mission to fight fake news and misinformation spread by “rivals,” especially to “manipulate civilian populations.” Macron implicitly referred to the growing influence of Russia in West Africa, including through anti-French social media campaigns.

France must be able to actively promote its actions, he said, and that’s why a substantial budget will be dedicated to what he called “influence” that will be coordinated by the government.

Amid other strategic goals, France aims at contributing to the stability of the Indo-Pacific zone and at ensuring freedom of action in “global common spaces” including the deep seabed, high seas, outer space and cyberspace.

A bill to be debated in Parliament at the beginning of next year will provide budget details

France’s Military is Being Ousted from More African Countries. Here’s Why

By MONIKA PRONCZUK and SYLVIE CORBET

12:11 AM EST, December 20, 2024

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — It’s been a tumultuous month for France and its relationship with former colonies in Africa, as its influence on the continent faces the biggest challenge in decades.

As Paris was devising a new military strategy that would sharply reduce its permanent troop presence in Africa, two of its closest allies struck a double blow.

The government of Chad, considered France’s most stable and loyal partner in Africa, announced on its Independence Day it was ending defense cooperation to redefine its sovereignty.

And in an interview published hours later by Le Monde, Senegal’s new president said it was “obvious” that soon French soldiers wouldn’t be on Senegalese soil.

“Just because the French have been here since the slavery period doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do otherwise,” President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said.

The announcements came as France was making efforts to revive waning influence on the continent. Foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot was completing a visit to Chad and Ethiopia, and President Emmanuel Macronfor the first time had recognized the killing of as many as 400 West African soldiers by the French Army in 1944.

French authorities stayed silent for almost 24 hours after Chad’s announcement, finally saying they were in “close dialogue” on the future of the partnership.

“Chad’s decision marks the final nail in the coffin of France’s post-colonial military dominance in the entire Sahel region,” said Mucahid Durmaz, a senior analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, referring to the arid region south of the Sahara.

The decisions by Senegal and Chad “are part of the wider structural transformation in the region’s engagement with France, in which Paris political and military influence continues to diminish,” Durmaz added.

They follow the ousting of French forces in recent years by military-led governments in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, where local sentiments turned sour following years of French forces fighting alongside local ones in the face of stubborn Islamic extremist insurgencies.

What is France’s new strategy in Africa?

Jean-Marie Bockel, Macron’s personal envoy for Africa, last month presented to Macron his report on the evolution of the French military presence in Africa.

It was part of the “renewal of our partnership with African countries” that Macron announced in a 2017 speech in Burkina Faso in the early days of his presidency.

The details of Bockel’s report have not been made public. But three French top officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks with the concerned countries, said France aimed for a sharp reduction of its military in all its bases in Africa except the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti — where Macron is expected to travel in the coming days.

The officials said it doesn’t mean France would necessarily reduce military cooperation but instead would respond to needs expressed by countries. It could mean providing more specific training in airspace surveillance or drones and other aircraft. France also could deploy troops on a temporary basis.

The officials declined to confirm numbers of troop reductions but called it significant.

The French army earlier this year also set up a command for Africa, similar to the U.S. AFRICOM. Newly appointed commander Pascal Ianni specializes in influence and information warfare — a need highlighted by Russia’s growing presence in Africa.

“You can carry on your military cooperation like many countries do. But the idea of having permanent military bases, which then can be used as political ammunition against you and spun up in kind of a disinformation war, is maybe not the best way of going about things,” said Will Brown, a senior policy fellow at the European Center for Foreign Relations.

Meanwhile, France is trying to boost its economic presence in Africa’s anglophone countries like Nigeria, analysts said. Already, its two biggest trading partners on the continent are Nigeria and South Africa.

At the time of Chad’s announcement, Macron was hosting talks with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.

Where does France have troops in West Africa, and why?

Since the independence of French colonies in Africa, France has maintained a policy of economic, political and military sway dubbed Françafrique, which included having thousands of permanent troops in the region.

France still has 600 troops in Ivory Coast, 350 in Senegal and 350 in Gabon, as well as around 1,500 in Djibouti. It has had 1,000 troops in Chad.

France’s defense ministry said the role of French troops in Africa is to train local soldiers and reinforce their capacities to fight extremism, mainly in peacekeeping, intelligence and logistics. But critics say keeping boots on the ground also has allowed Paris to retain influence and protect political regimes favorable to France.

“The countries of Francophone Africa want a change in the nature of this relationship,” said Gilles Yabi, head of the West Africa Citizen Think Tank.

Why are West African countries expelling French troops?

Growing anti-French sentiment has led to street protests in several West and North African countries, while governments that gained power on pledges of redefining relationships with the West say ties with France have not benefited the population. They want to explore options with Russia, China, Turkey and other powers.

Chad’s President Mahamat Deby “would not have made this decision if he did not have security guarantees from another actor,” Brown said. “We know he’s received serious support from the United Arab Emirates, who are very interested in what’s going on in neighboring Sudan and Darfur. We know that Turkey also made some outreach.”

Chad borders four countries with Russian military presence. In January, Deby traveled to Moscow to reinforce relations with the “partner country.”

Military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso who expelled the French military have moved closer to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel who have been accused of abuses against civilians.

But the security situation has worsened in those countries, with increasing numbers of extremist attacks and civilian deaths from both armed groups and government forces. Over the first six months of this year, 3,064 civilians were killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a 25% increase over the previous six months.

It is impossible to say whether the departure of French forces led to the increased violence. But it created a “huge security vacuum,” said analyst Shaantanu Shankar with the Economist Intelligence Unit, adding that it cannot be filled by Russia. Troops from the Russian private military company Wagner are being financed by the junta governments with fewer financial resources, he said.

France Calls for European Aid After 27 Migrant Deaths at Sea

By OLEG CETINIC and JOHN LEICESTER

A damaged inflatable small boat is pictured on the shore in Wimereux, northern France, Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021 in Calais, northern France. Children and pregnant women were among at least 27 migrants who died when their small boat sank in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, a French government official said Thursday. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also announced the arrest of a fifth suspected smuggler thought to have been involved in what was the deadliest migration tragedy to date on the dangerous sea lane.(AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

CALAIS, France (AP) — Helicopters buzzed above the waves and vessels were already scouring the cold waters when French maritime rescue volunteer Charles Devos added his boat to the frantic search for a flimsy migrant craft that foundered in the English Channel, killing at least 27.

What Devos found was gruesome. But not, he later sorrowfully acknowledged, wholly unexpected. With migrants often setting off by the hundreds in flotillas of unseaworthy and overloaded vessels into the busy shipping lane crisscrossed by hulking freighters, and frequently beset by treacherous weather, waves and currents, Devos had long feared that tragedy would ensue.

That came this week, with the deadliest migration accident to date on the dangerous stretch of sea that separates France and Britain.

“We picked up six floating bodies. We passed by an inflatable craft that was deflated. The little bit of air remaining kept it afloat,” Devos told reporters.

“I’d been somewhat expecting it because I’d say, ‘It’s going to end with a drama,’” he said.

France and Britain appealed Thursday for European assistance, promised stepped-up efforts to combat people-smuggling networks and also traded blame and barbs in the wake of Wednesday’s deadly sinking that shone a light on the scale and complexity of Europe’s migration problems.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent French President Emmanuel Macron and the EU leadership a letter Thursday proposing joint sea, air and land patrols starting as soon as next week. France has resisted the idea. Johnson also proposed an agreement allowing Britain to send back migrants to France.

Macron appealed to neighboring European countries to do more to stop illegal migration into France, saying that when migrants reach French shores with hopes of heading on to Britain “it is already too late.”

Macron said France is deploying army drones as part of stepped-up efforts to patrol its northern coastline and help rescue migrants at sea. But he also said that a greater collective effort is needed, referring to France as a “transit country” for Britain-bound migrants.

“We need to strengthen cooperation with Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, but also the British and the (European) Commission,” he said on a visit to Croatia. “We need stronger European cooperation.”

Migration is an explosive issue in Europe, where leaders often accuse one another of not doing enough to either prevent migrants from entering their countries or from continuing on to other nations.

Ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Britain and EU officials will meet on Sunday to discuss increasing efforts to crack down on migrant-smuggling networks, Macron’s government announced.

They will convene in Calais, one of the French coastal towns where migrants gather, looking for ways to cross to the British coast that is visible from France on clear days. Seaside communities on both sides of the channel were reeling Thursday from the sinking’s horrific toll.

“This was unfortunately something that could have been foreseen, a scenario of horror that we’d feared and dreaded,” said Ludovic Hochart, a police union official in Calais.

Across the channel, in the British port of Dover, small business owner Paula Elliot said: “It’s dreadful that people have lost their lives.”

“The vessels that they take, are traveling in, are not fit for purpose,” she said. “They probably don’t understand how arduous the journey is going to be, and especially at this time of year, it’s so much colder than in the summer.”

Devos, the rescue volunteer, told reporters in comments broadcast by coastal radio Delta FM that the flimsy craft used by migrants for the crossing are increasingly overloaded, with as many as 50 people aboard.

Macron described the dead in Wednesday’s sinking as “victims of the worst system, that of smugglers and human traffickers.”

France has never had so many officers mobilized against illegal migration and its commitment is “total,” he said.

Ever-increasing numbers of people fleeing conflict or poverty in Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Eritrea or elsewhere are risking the perilous journey from France, hoping to win asylum or find better opportunities in Britain.

The crossings have tripled this year compared to 2020. Shipwrecks on the scale of that seen Wednesday are not uncommon in the Mediterranean Sea, where just this year about 1,600 people have died or gone missing, according to U.N. estimates.

The French prosecutors’ office tasked with investigating the sinking said the dead included 17 men, seven women and two boys and one girl thought to be teenagers. Magistrates were investigating potential charges of homicide, unintentional wounding, assisting illegal migration and criminal conspiracy, the prosecutors’ office said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said children and pregnant women were among the dead. Two survivors from the sinking were treated for hypothermia. One is Iraqi, the other Somali, Darmanin said. He said authorities are working to determine the victims’ nationalities.

Destabilized by shock and sadness, aid workers and Calais residents held a silent vigil Thursday night in the port city to honor the dead, huddling beneath a cold rain and lighting candles in their memory.

Macron’s government vowed to bring those responsible for the tragedy to justice, piling pressure on investigators. Darmanin announced the arrests of five alleged smugglers who he said are suspected of being linked to the sinking. He gave no details. The prosecutors’ office investigating the deaths confirmed five arrests since Wednesday but said they didn’t appear to be linked to its probe.

Darmanin said a suspected smuggler arrested overnight was driving a vehicle registered in Germany and had bought inflatable boats there.

He said criminal groups in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Britain are behind people-smuggling networks. He called on those countries to cooperate better against smugglers, saying they don’t always respond fully to French judicial requests for information.

“Britain and France must work together. We must no longer be, in effect, the only ones able to fight the smugglers,” the minister said.

In their immediate response to the sinking, French authorities initially gave differing figures on the number of dead, from at least 27 to 31. The figure that Darmanin used Thursday morning on RTL radio was 27.

The minister also took a swipe at British government migration policies, saying France expels more people living in the country without legal permission than the U.K. Illegal migration from France’s northern shores to Britain has long been a source of tension between the two countries, even as their police forces work together to try to stop crossings. The issue is often used by politicians on both sides pushing an anti-migration agenda.

Darmanin also suggested that by hiring people living in the country illegally, British employers are encouraging illegal migration to English shores.

“English employers use this labor to make the things that the English manufacture and consume,” he said. “We say ‘reform your labor market.’”

U.K. officials, meanwhile, criticize France for rejecting their offer of British police and border officers to conduct joint patrols along the channel coast with French police.

Macron advocated an immediate funding boost for the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, according to his office.

“France will not allow the Channel to become a cemetery,” Macron said.

Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France. Lori Hinnant in Paris and David Keyton in Dover, England, contributed.

Al-Qaeda and the Sahel

AQMI guerrillas who are fighting in Mali have become the focus of the purported battle against Al-Qaeda in North Africa.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Osama bin Laden and the Sahel

In one message, bin Laden has propelled the little known crisis in the Sahel to international prominence

Jeremy Keenan
Last Modified: 03 Nov 2010 13:18 GMT

Aside from the polemics that surround all of Osama bin Laden's occasional pronouncements, namely whether he is still alive and their authenticity, their importance lies in the extent to which they are believed and acted upon.

In the case of the audio-tape released to Al Jazeera on October 27, in which he castigated France for its treatment of Muslims, its role in Afghanistan and its intervention in the affairs of Muslims in North and West Africa, few of his (or al-Qaeda's) pronouncements have had greater resonance. Certainly, none have had more impact on North and West Africa, France, nor possibly the EU as a whole. It is likely to have profound implications on the so-called war on al-Qaeda in the Sahara and Sahel, as well as on French and European policies in the region.

The first thing to say about this intervention is that the international publicity given to it has ensured that a relatively obscure crisis in the hitherto little known Sahel has attained international prominence - especially in Europe where the Sahel topped the agenda at the EU Council of Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg on October 25.

Indeed, it seems hardly coincidental that bin Laden's audio-tape was released less than 48 hours after the EU Council meeting. In other words, while the Sahel crisis, or perhaps more appropriately France's crisis, was being discussed within the hallowed and scarcely publicised precincts of the European Council, it was bin Laden who brought it to global attention.

Bin Laden's 'blessing'

His pronouncement sent out several messages. Firstly, it will be seen as a 'blessing' on those who abducted seven hostages - five French nationals, a Togolese and a Madagascan - in the Niger uranium-mining town of Arlit on September 16. "The kidnapping of your experts in Niger," bin Laden said, "is in retaliation for the tyranny you practice against our Muslim nation."

Secondly, such a 'blessing' is likely to have transformatory implications. This is because al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahara-Sahel was a creation of the Algerian DRS (Direction du Renseignement et la Sécurité) with its three main emirs in the Sahara-Sahel - Abdelhamid abou Zaïd, Yahia Djouadi and Mokhtar ben Mokhtar (all with many aliases) - being strongly suspected of being DRS agents.

Between the end of 2008 and this year, as the group's estimated strength increased from around 200 to some 300 to 400, its composition changed. As young Mauritanian Islamists have become increasingly attracted to the Sahara Emirate, as they call it, so they have come to outnumber Algerians, possibly diminishing DRS influence and control over the group.

Indications are that AQIM recruitment from young and more 'Islamist' and 'jihadist' elements in the region leapt in the wake of the disastrous Franco-Mauritanian raids into Mali on July 22, ostensibly to liberate the French hostage Michel Germaneau, and again after September 16 when France's ally ('proxy') Mauritania, which had joined France in 'declaring war' on AQIM, was given a very bloody nose by AQIM fighters at Ras el Ma (west of Timbuktu).

The outcome of this surge in recruitment, for which France must take much of the credit, is that it will almost certainly lead to changes in AQIM's internal organisation with the possibility of the Islamists, as distinct from the DRS, exercising more influence and control over its general strategy and operational activities.

Bin Laden's 'blessing' will almost certainly have accelerated this transformation by giving both a huge pat on the back to the more Islamist and jihadist elements of the organisation and a boost to their further recruitment. This will be of particular concern to the EU.

A French crisis

Thirdly, bin Laden's message may give clues as to the nature of the demands that AQIM may make of France for the release of the seven hostages and thus how those demands might be negotiated.

France's plan to ban the wearing of full face veils in public could quite easily be dropped, but a withdrawal of France's 3,500 to 4,000 troops from Afghanistan, or a withdrawal from uranium mining in Niger, if that is what is meant by "taking a lot of our wealth in suspicious deals," are likely to be 'no deal' areas.

If that is the case, then the message could perhaps be interpreted as a warning of either the hostages' execution or long drawn-out negotiations designed to humiliate France. These two possible outcomes are believed to reflect the possibly different goals of the DRS and Islamist elements within AQIM.

France's reaction to the audio-tape is indicative of the precarious and uncertain nature of the direction in which this crisis could move. While bin Laden's message has raised the security alarm even higher in France (and Europe), with Brice Hortefeux, the interior minister, saying that France is under a "real" terror threat which needs "total vigilance," Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister who is the subject of resignation rumours, has tried to down-play the significance of the audio-tape by saying that the threat was expected and that bin Laden has little influence over AQIM.

France is facing a crisis to which there are no immediate and obvious solutions. After seven weeks, AQIM has still not stated its demands. Nevertheless, one can envisage possible face-saving and realistic options for France. But, they remain unspoken as they concern the 'elephant in the room' - Algeria.

Let me explain: If, as many believe, Algeria's DRS has such influence over AQIM in the Sahel, it is conceivable that it could arrange the release of the hostages, possibly on religious, humanitarian or some other such grounds, along with a series of not too onerous gestures by France.

The price demanded by Algeria would be high, involving perhaps greater freedom of operation for the DRS in France, French influence either directly or through the EU on weakening Morocco, etc. These would be politically acceptable to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who is primarily responsible for getting France into this predicament, as they would not be of direct concern to or much understood by the French public.

A loss for Algeria?

Far less positive for Algeria is a scenario which could conceivably result in Algeria, not France, coming out of this situation as the ultimate loser. This is as follows: Most of Algeria's neighbours have recently begun to accuse it of being in some way responsible for the development of the AQIM 'terrorist' threat in the Sahel.

Cheikh El Moctar Ould Horma, Mauritania's minister of health, recently 'suggested' that Algeria was the 'porte-parole' (spokesperson) for AQIM; elements in the Moroccan media have accused Washington of appeasing Algeria in its relationship with and use of AQIM as a 'terrorist' organisation; a senior member of Mali's security forces accused the DRS of being 'at the heart of AQIM'; Niger is angry with the role played by Algeria's DRS in the political destabilisation of its northern regions; while Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's leader, has suggested euphemistically that the problem in the region is Algeria's DRS.

This increased regional antipathy towards Algeria was clearly evident at the security conference held in Bamako on October 13 and 14. The conference, initiated by France, angered Algeria, the one regional power with the military capability to eradicate AQIM in the Sahel.

Algeria, however, with the broad support (or what Morocco might call appeasement) of the US, has been using AQIM's presence in the Sahel to further its own hegemonic designs on the region. It is therefore strongly opposed to any external intervention and has consequently established, somewhat theatrically, a number of regional security-intelligence institutions that are exclusive to Algeria and its three weaker neighbours - Mauritania, Mali and Niger - and thus designed to maintain Algeria's management and control over the situation.

Mali's temerity in suggesting that Morocco, who Algeria has been trying to exclude from any participation in the Sahel security situation, should be invited was a red rag to a bull.

Algeria's boycott of the conference - attended by anti-terrorism experts from all G8 members, namely Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US, and their counterparts from Burkina Faso, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, as well as representatives from Spain, Switzerland, Australia, the European Union, the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was its most noteworthy aspect.

This much higher than expected attendance at Bamako could be interpreted as an international repudiation of Algeria's role in the fabrication, exaggeration and even management of 'terrorism' in the region since the DRS's involvement in the abduction of 32 European hostages in the Algerian Sahara in 2003.

If the regional tables continue to be turned on Algeria in this way, then France might have an opportunity to re-establish and perhaps even enhance its influence and standing in the region. While this scenario might not necessarily secure the lives of the hostages, it could conceivably ensure that Algeria and not France is the ultimate loser.

However, there is only one outcome of this situation that is certain. And that is that the countries of the Sahel - Mali, Mauritania and Niger - stand to acquire a huge increase in development/security aid and related assistance from the EU in the New Year.

Jeremy Keenan is a professorial research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and author of The Dark Sahara: America's War on Terror in Africa.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Source: Al Jazeera