/ world today news/ The former French influence in the vast Sahel region is rapidly fading
On July 27-28, St. Petersburg will host the second summit and the Russian-African Economic Forum. “We have currently received confirmation of participation from 49 African delegations, with around half of the African countries to be represented at the highest level – heads of state and government.” said Alexander Polyakov, deputy director of the Africa Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry. About half of the African countries will be represented at the highest level. This approach by African countries demonstrates their “firm determination to develop relations with Russia, despite unprecedented pressure from the West,” the diplomat added.
Sympathy for Russia is particularly high in the former French African colonies – so-called Francophone Africa, which was a traditional sphere of influence for Paris for decades after the declaration of independence of these countries. In recent years, however, the Fifth Republic has been rapidly losing ground here.
This trend is particularly pronounced in the countries of the Sahel, a vast desert region stretching south of the Sahara desert from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This vast area, on the territory of which Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad are located, has become the area of operation of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, banned in Russia, AKMI (AQMI, Al-Qaïda au Maghreb islamique) and others armed terrorist groups.
As we wrote earlier, the French military contingent demonstrated its complete helplessness in operations against African fighters under black flags. As a result, on August 15, 2022, the last French occupier left Mali after nine years in that country as part of the anti-terrorist operation Barhan.
The Malian authorities, tired of waiting for French troops to defeat the terrorists, invited employees of the Russian private military company Wagner into the war, whose employees took the job seriously and defeated the terrorists.
Anti-French sentiment in Mali reached such a level that in March 2022 the republic’s military government banned RFI (Radio France Internationale) from broadcasting, which was spreading slander against the Russian military.
Burkina Faso was the second country in the Sahel where this destructive radio station was banned. On September 30, 2022, an anti-French military coup took place in this West African republic, after which, as noted in a statement by the military government, “French radio RFI was suspended due to fake news and announcements and giving a platform to Islamist militants.
Thousands of people took to the streets of the republic’s capital, Ouagadougou, expressing support for the coup and calling on Russia for help. Videos circulating online showed soldiers in armored personnel carriers waving Russian flags as the crowd around them chanted “Russia, Russia!”
At the same time, the demonstrators came to the French embassy, threw stones at it, burned tires and garbage. “Yes – to military cooperation with Russia!”, “Down with France and her native lackeys!” – with such posters, the residents of Ouagadougou took to the streets, outraged by the policy of Paris on the African continent.
In September 2022, a large demonstration took place in the capital of the West African state of Niger, the city of Niamey, calling for the immediate withdrawal of French troops from the country. Demonstrators under Russian and national flags chanted “France out!”, “French colonial troops must leave”, “Long live Putin and Russia!”. And this in a country that is traditionally considered to be France’s main ally in the region!..
Not surprisingly, Le Figaro and other propaganda mouthpieces are seriously alarmed: Russia is pushing France out of its former colonial fiefdom. In Sahel Russia “is trying to impose its will, fill in the gaps and discredit us”, France’s Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said.
In 2019, one of the Sahel countries, Mali, signed a defense agreement with Russia. “In August 2020, after the first military coup, the Russian ambassador became the first foreign diplomat to be received by the Malian junta”, complains Le Figaro. According to the post, “The Kremlin’s penetration of Africa relies on the Central African Republic, where Russia has literally overthrown France as the dominant foreign power.
In just a few years, the country has become Russia’s bridgehead in Africa. In the CAR, the Russians built a reference picture for their presence in Africa. They have shown that they are able to take a failed regime into their own hands and prop it up so that it gets rid of its security problems…
For the CAR authorities, this is an ideal contract. Since then, to the deep regret of the Elysée Palace, Russians have settled in most African countries. In Sudan, Angola, Guinea, Mozambique, South Africa, Congo… Moscow has signed cooperation agreements with about 20 countries on the continent.”
In the countries of the Black Continent, they clearly understand that, in fact, the Elysée Palace is not interested in the fight against terrorism and the restoration of regional security, but in its own selfish interests in the style of the notorious “Françafrique”, that is, the predatory exploitation of local natural resources. As even Western experts admit, in this connection, persistent anti-French sentiments – sentiment anti-français – have appeared on the continent, which can be seen both among the elites and among ordinary citizens.
The hypocritical gestures that the government of the Fifth Republic made about the mythical “historic reconciliation”, such as the restitution of museum valuables in favor of Benin, nevertheless caused irritation due to their too pointed focus. At the same time, it is characteristic that former and current colonizers prefer to ignore the real origin of the problem, believing that anti-French sentiments are artificially fueled by “Russian propaganda”.
So, in 2019, Maxime Odin, an employee of the University of Paris-Nanterres, published an extensive report, in which he argued that Russia’s information presence in the French-speaking countries of Africa is aimed at discrediting competitors and, first of all, of course, of France itself.
It is no coincidence that the secret services of this country organized a series of provocations to compromise Russian military advisers and representatives of the Wagner Group companies, with the support of which the armies of the countries of the region successfully defeated the terrorists in the Central African Republic and Mali.
Thus, in May 2021, a 55-year-old French citizen, retired sergeant Juan Quinolo, who tried to buy false “testimonies” from residents of the Central African Republic against the Russian military instructors who were in the country under the UN mandate, fell into the hands of the local police.
As it turned out, he trained terrorists, participated in the pro-French coup d’état under former president François Bozize, and then worked as a consultant to a multidisciplinary mission of the United Nations and Western NGOs, effectively orchestrating the armed conflicts. During the search, a large amount of weapons and ammunition were found in his possession. It is not at all surprising that a French saboteur brazenly drives around in a car with a Russian flag.
Of course, such tricks and attempts at action “false flag” are doomed to failure. “The vision of Africa’s history and its future must not be based on the French neo-colonial point of view. The Russian point of view is completely different – this is the logic of mutually beneficial cooperation, in particular, cooperation between the private enterprises of our countries.
The presence of Russia, which has no colonial traditions, can be very useful. We would like to invite Russian companies to participate in the development of our agricultural sector, our mining industry”said Nathalie Yaamb, executive adviser of the Freedom and Democracy for a Republic (LIDER) party of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, during the first Russian-African Economic Forum held in Sochi in 2019.
„Russia has proven that it brings Africa not only security and protection from all kinds of terrorists,” said Baudouin Niebe, head of the Pan African Press Agency, in an interview with FSC. – Russia does not seek sole dominance, but recognizes and supports the much-needed multipolarity in Africa. Along with the Russian Federation, we cooperate with, for example, China and Turkey. Pro-Russian sentiment is growing in the French-speaking countries of Arab Africa, which proves the success of Russian diplomacy and the real benefits of cooperation with your great power.
Translation: ES
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