Post by sakil on Jan 28, 2024 10:32:46 GMT
The local elites, very open to the designs of Paris, or rather, it should be said to those of the Elysée, because, for decades, the control of the African policy of France has been a reserved matter for the Presidency of the Republic. What seems to be happening now is that, as a consequence of the wear and tear but also the failure of successive French military operations, a rebellious nucleus seems to be taking shape in the intermediate sectors of the armies, at least in the Sahel countries, where the unrest It is more noticeable. Evolution in the Sahel TOWARDS A SECOND INDEPENDENCE? One of the main experts on France's African policy, Alain Antil, director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Center of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), considers that the “epidemic of coups d'état” (Macron dixit) corresponds to a “ decline of the French presence on the continent, which is an underlying trend” (2).
In the sixties, when the independence processes began, France had 30,000 troops stationed in the region; Today, there are only 6,000. This military withdrawal has a lot to do with the change in economic priorities: according Phone Number Database to Antil, “French interests are no longer concentrated in French-speaking countries and even less so in the Sahelian ones.” This estimate does not invalidate the importance of the Nigerien uranium deposits, by the way. The French strategy seems somewhat outdated . Antil recalls that “France is the only colonizing country that has maintained permanent military bases for decades and carried out around fifty operations.” Western control over Africa, accentuated after the end of the Cold War, has been exercised differently from that exercised by France, which is judged by certain elites as “paternalistic.” Some unfortunate pronouncements by recent French Presidents have contributed to this perception.
In Antil's opinion, the defenders of these latest coups, carried out by younger soldiers and many of them outside the traditional mechanisms of power, promote a kind of "second independence", which implies "a break with the former colonizer, considered as co-responsible with the ruling African elites for the misfortunes of these countries.” Anti-French sentiment extends even to the safest countries, such as Senegal Anti-French sentiment extends even to the safest countries, such as Senegal, which is experiencing unusual instability, with the populist leader of the opposition arrested and on hunger strike and a climate of discontent that is very noticeable, especially among the youth ( 3). In defense of official French policy, the former Foreign Minister and now MEP from Macron's party Nathalie Loiseau has raised her voice these days, for whom "coups are matters specific to African states, and therefore their failure."
In the sixties, when the independence processes began, France had 30,000 troops stationed in the region; Today, there are only 6,000. This military withdrawal has a lot to do with the change in economic priorities: according Phone Number Database to Antil, “French interests are no longer concentrated in French-speaking countries and even less so in the Sahelian ones.” This estimate does not invalidate the importance of the Nigerien uranium deposits, by the way. The French strategy seems somewhat outdated . Antil recalls that “France is the only colonizing country that has maintained permanent military bases for decades and carried out around fifty operations.” Western control over Africa, accentuated after the end of the Cold War, has been exercised differently from that exercised by France, which is judged by certain elites as “paternalistic.” Some unfortunate pronouncements by recent French Presidents have contributed to this perception.
In Antil's opinion, the defenders of these latest coups, carried out by younger soldiers and many of them outside the traditional mechanisms of power, promote a kind of "second independence", which implies "a break with the former colonizer, considered as co-responsible with the ruling African elites for the misfortunes of these countries.” Anti-French sentiment extends even to the safest countries, such as Senegal Anti-French sentiment extends even to the safest countries, such as Senegal, which is experiencing unusual instability, with the populist leader of the opposition arrested and on hunger strike and a climate of discontent that is very noticeable, especially among the youth ( 3). In defense of official French policy, the former Foreign Minister and now MEP from Macron's party Nathalie Loiseau has raised her voice these days, for whom "coups are matters specific to African states, and therefore their failure."