09/24/2023 – 17:54
A contingent of around 1,500 soldiers will leave the country, which suffered a military coup in July. France’s operation to combat jihadist groups in the Sahel region had already suffered a similar setback in Mali and Burkina Faso. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, announced this Sunday (25/09) the withdrawal of the French military contingent by the end of the year in Niger, which suffered a coup d’état in July that overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum and placed a military junta in power.
France, Macron said, “has decided to put an end to military cooperation with Niger.” He also announced that in the “next few hours” the French ambassador to Niger will “return” to Paris. There are currently around 1,500 French soldiers in the country.
In an interview with broadcasters TF1 and France 2, Macron declared that France will be “always available” to support Africa in the fight against jihadist terrorism, as long as it is at the request of democratically elected governments or regional organizations.
“Françafrique (a geopolitical concept that describes the influence exerted by Paris over its former African colonies) is over. When there are coups d’état, we don’t intervene,” he said.
Setback for French operation in Africa
The announcement on Niger represents a setback for France’s Africa policy, after French military personnel have already withdrawn from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in recent years following military coups in those countries.
France sent military personnel to the Sahel region to combat jihadist groups, at the request of African leaders. Since 2013, almost 5,000 French troops have been sent with this mission to Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania.
In August 2022, more than nine years after being welcomed in Mali as “saviors”, the 2,400 French soldiers completed their withdrawal from the country, ordered by Macron due to the deterioration of relations with the military junta in power in Bamako and in the face of growing hostility of local public opinion towards France.
Two months later, it was the turn of the approximately 400 French soldiers in Burkina Faso to leave the country. Since 2022, Niger has been hosting a large part of the remaining soldiers from this operation.
The departure of French soldiers in some cases is usually followed by a rapprochement with the Wagner Group, as in the case of Mali, where the military junta in power in Bamako made an agreement with the mercenaries to support its army.
“We were there because Niger asked us, Burkina Faso and Mali, to help them fight terrorism in their territories. Today, these countries have been victims of coups d’état. Just today I spoke to President Bazoum, who is now detained because he was carrying out ambitious reforms,” said Macron.
The French contingent in Niger, a country where France also has economic interests in uranium, is distributed between the capital Niamey, Ouallam, to the north, and Ayorou, close to the border with Mali. Macron stated that the withdrawal of the military will be done gradually and in coordination with the military junta that currently governs Niger.
Anti-French sentiments
Niger was a French colony from the beginning of the 20th century until 1960, when it became an independent country. Today it is one of the main suppliers of uranium for French nuclear plants, with around a third of the total in a country where 70% of electricity is generated by atomic reactors.
For many Africans, the colonial past weighs against France. And this is combined, in the post-colonial period, with the Elisha’s frequent support for African autocrats. Furthermore, many people in Africa perceive President Emmanuel Macron as arrogant, which certainly does not improve France’s image.
Despite the perception of arrogance that accompanies him, it must be said that few French leaders have undertaken as many efforts to improve France’s image in Africa as Macron.
In an unusual gesture for French leaders, he traveled to Rwanda to recognize that France had great responsibility in the 1994 genocide, which left around 800,000 dead.
Macron increased financial aid to the continent, began returning works of art stolen during colonial times and provided military support to combat jihadist militants who have killed countless civilians in Africa.
bl (AP, EFE, DW)
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