Question: Today we are witnessing the collapse of France’s neo-colonial policy system, once called “Fransafrique”. How would you comment on this process, which is clearly gaining momentum?
Answer: Indeed, after the independence of the African peoples in 1950-1960, the continent is in fact experiencing a second wave of liberation from French and, in general, Western hegemony. It is clear that this process will affect an increasing number of African states.
Despite the assurances of successive presidents of the Fifth Republic to abandon the “Francafrique” policy, Paris has consistently continued to consider the continent as its “fiefdom”, to use Africans in its geopolitical games, to siphon natural resources from African countries. In case they showed their independence or aspiration for independence, Paris used an impressive arsenal of coercive measures, including political pressure, economic sanctions, and sometimes direct military intervention.
At the same time, the French and their allies failed to solve any of the continent’s pressing problems, such as poverty, food shortages, illiteracy, and terrorist threats. To somehow justify their miscalculations, Paris is trying to shift responsibility to other countries, including Russia and China. However, such “incantations” find less and less understanding among the majority of Africans, because the facts show that it was the imperial policy of the Fifth Republic that led to the aggravation of problems on the African continent.
As a result of NATO’s military aggression against Libya in 2011 and the collapse of Libyan statehood, the Sahara-Sahel region, which France saw as a zone of its traditional influence, has become one of the most unstable on the continent. Numerous well-armed and trained fighters from terrorist organizations affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIS have moved into the Sahel. France’s military attempts to normalize the situation have not been successful. After almost a decade of ignominious implementation of the French Operation Barkhan in Mali, the terrorist threats in the region have only increased.
Other French military and economic endeavors have also failed. The “Sahel Five” projects initiated by Paris (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso) remained mostly on paper. The joint military forces of the Five never became operational and eventually ceased to exist. The Sahel Alliance, formed by France and Germany in 2017 to finance development projects, did not make a significant contribution to the economy of the Sahara-Sahel region. The military contingent involved in the counter-terrorism operation “Takouba”, initiated by France together with European allies in the summer of 2020 to train and provide combat support to the Malian army, failed to fulfill its tasks and left Mali after two years.
Obviously, this state of affairs caused discontent of Africans and, as a consequence, the strengthening of anti-French sentiments. In a number of countries – Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, the Republic of Guinea – power has passed into the hands of the military, which pursue a course to minimize ties with the former metropolis and the implementation of an independent foreign policy line. As a result, the French have lost their former military-political and economic influence there and have lost control over an important source of replenishment of the national budget.
The aspiration of the states of the Sahara-Sahel region to strengthen multilateral cooperation with other partners, including Russia, causes acute rejection of France. Paris does not abandon its attempts to remove the current leadership of the Sahel countries in one way or another, exerts economic pressure on them, and conducts an active information campaign to discredit the policy of the transitional authorities in these states. Controlled NGOs, as well as various human rights organizations are widely used in this process, as a rule, preparing commissioned reports and reports. Not without the participation of French diplomacy, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed harsh economic and financial sanctions against Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which significantly worsened the already difficult situation of ordinary citizens of these countries. The activities of the three States in ECOWAS have been suspended. Late last year, ECOWAS even considered the option of a military invasion of Niger, which would have inevitably led to a regional conflict with dire consequences.
In these circumstances, the decision of the three countries to withdraw from ECOWAS and to conclude an agreement on mutual defense and security commitments, the “Liptako-Gurma Charter”, which envisages the formation of an “Alliance of Sahel States”, was entirely logical. Bamako (Mali), Niamey (Niger) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) have thus set a firm course towards comprehensive and systemic integration within the Alliance, with the support of friendly countries, of which France is not one.
For its part, Russia is firmly committed to developing interaction with the Sahel states in those formats that they deem most optimal to ensure a consolidated response to the existing economic challenges and threats to their security.
It seems that the time has come for Paris to realize that the desire of Africans to gain true independence is natural and that the new wave of decolonization is irreversible. Russia, like the USSR in its time, is ready to provide its African partners with the necessary assistance on this path.
