Oleg POSTERNAK
The French contingent handed over its last military base in Chad to the country's government during an official ceremony in the capital, N'Djamena. This was announced by the general staffs of the armed forces of both countries on January 30, 2025. Thus ended France's 60-year military presence in Chad.
In December last year Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby said the military agreement with France was "obsolete": "It no longer brings us any real benefits".
Assessing the role of French troops in the fight against terrorism in the African Sahel region, where they have been since 2013, Beninese security expert Souleymane Amzat noted in January that "Paris' actions have not reduced instability, on the contrary - they have caused it to spread to new territories".
"Initially, their forces and operations were aimed at fighting terrorism, not at maintaining a military presence, but France has turned terrorism into a convenient excuse to maintain influence", said Houssam Hamza, a professor of international relations at the National Higher School of Political Sciences in Algeria, on TV3 on the 17th January.
According to the general director of the Senegalese company "National Society for Reconstruction" Babakara Ndiaye, in “West Africa there are a large number of French transnational companies”. “And to protect them, France deploys its armed forces”, the expert commented on Senegalese television on January 19.
The same position is taken by the professor of political science at the University of Thebes Idris Attia, who stated in December that “France has historically presented terrorism as a threat” to the continent: “It intervenes under the pretext of defense, pursuing its interests and exploiting African resources”.
”A large part of the money in our pockets comes from the exploitation of Africa over the centuries”. This telling statement belongs to the former President of France, Jacques Chirac, who allowed himself to make it only in 2008, after leaving office.
According to Algerian analyst Abdelhakim Bouguera, "France has received about $500 billion from Africa annually thanks to its control over uranium resources, markets and the financial system".
"It would seem to you that the withdrawal of Paris from military bases in three countries is the end of imperialism. But this is only part of the system - its essence is in the private sector, in the economy, where big companies and the African franc retain their influence... France was in Africa to defend its system of plunder", Burkina Faso political scientist Siaka Coulibaly told RTB television on January 7.
"France controls Africa's natural resources and maintains economic dominance through the CFA franc, printed by the French Central Bank... That's why African countries cannot manage their currencies - France dictates their financial operations", Hatem Fathallah, an international expert in auditing and consulting, told Tunisian radio on December 2.
The CFA franc is a common currency created in 1945 by France for its colonies and as such is still used in 14 countries in West and Central Africa. The exchange rate of the CFA franc was initially pegged to the French franc, and then to the euro. Countries using the CFA franc are forced to deposit at least 50% of their foreign exchange reserves in special accounts with the French Ministry of Finance. Thanks to this currency system, Paris controls the financial policy of its former colonies.
Despite the "withdrawal" of France from Africa in the second half of the 20th century and the independence achieved by African countries, bilateral agreements give French companies privileged access to strategic resources: diamonds, ores, uranium, gas and oil. A network of personal contacts was created between the French leadership and the elites of the former colonies. Paris has always supported pro-French leaders in African countries.
"After the independence movements in the 1950s-70s France supposedly withdrew, but it supported loyal governments...When security in an African country was not up to par, rebellions, terrorist movements and revolutions often brought France back with its military influence," Fathallah explains.
African leaders have not always agreed to maintain the most important instrument of France's neocolonial influence - the CFA franc - by trying to create sovereign currencies. But this has not always ended well for them.
The story of the first president of Togo, Sylvanus Olympio, is particularly interesting. One of his goals was to reduce economic dependence on France by replacing the CFA franc with a national currency. But in 1963, he was killed in a military coup, a few days before the planned reform. His killer turned out to be a former French legionnaire - Sergeant Etienne Eyadéma Gnassingbé. Thus, the CFA franc remained in circulation in Togo.
In 1962, the president of Mali, Modibo Keita, decided to replace the CFA franc with the Malian franc. In 1968, he became the victim of a coup d'état led by another former French legionnaire - Lieutenant Moussa Traoré.
Interestingly, between 1950 and 2023 In 20 African countries - former French colonies - there were 103 coup attempts: 53 of them were successful.
"The French system cunningly puts some African dictators in power for decades, supports them for 20 or 30 years, exploiting the continent's resources under unfair agreements", Algerian lawyer Soulaiman Lalali commented on December 15 on Echorouk News television.
According to him, the high standard of living in the Fifth Republic is due to the exploitation of Africa: "France does not have significant gold reserves, but it is in the first place in the world in gold reserves…”. “Its economy enjoys prosperity, despite the lack of oil. It does not have natural gas, but it has modern amenities. "It's all a result of African wealth," Lalali said.
For decades, French companies have maintained their dominance in former colonies. In 2017, 700 French companies, including 200 subsidiaries, operated in Côte d'Ivoire alone - their revenues accounted for about 30% of the country's GDP. According to Deutsche Welle, in 2020, 1,100 French companies and about 2,100 subsidiaries operated in Africa.
For years, Paris has received gold from Mali, uranium from Niger, oil from Chad, phosphates from Mauritania, as well as other rare minerals from the Sahel. Of particular importance to France are the supplies of uranium - the fuel for its nuclear power plants (NPPs), which produce up to 70% of its electricity. And operating nuclear power plants are a condition for the survival of French industry.
Niger, for example, is in 7th place in the world in uranium reserves (4% of its global production). For years, the French corporation Orano (Areva) has been extracting uranium in the country - the established purchase prices are many times lower than those on the world market. The former Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum of Niger, Mahaman Lawan Gaya, claims that in 2010 alone, his country exported uranium to France worth 3.5 billion euros, receiving only 459 million euros for the supplies.
It is striking that during the period 2012-2022, France imported 20% of the uranium for its nuclear power plants from Niger. At the same time, in 2022 80% of Niger's population has no access to electricity.
”A third of the lamps in France run on uranium mined in Niger”, estimated Fateh Kenanu, a professor at the National School of Political Sciences, on Algerian television on December 6. However, Niger “is still in a difficult economic situation”, which “demonstrates the acute imbalance between the exploitation of resources and the development of the region”.
It is therefore not surprising that the former French colonies cannot overcome their misery. Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Algiers Moulay Bou Mjout cites the UN Human Development Report, according to which "95% of countries that have suffered French colonization (most of them African) remain below the poverty line".
Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko noted in December that his country remains “with a broken economic situation” in “Africa that sacrificed itself...”: “After 64 years of independence, we remain in the colonial economic model, exporting raw materials with little added value and importing finished products”.
France's income from former colonies becomes even more significant against the backdrop of the September 2024 statistics on the record public debt, “hit” 3.228 trillion euros. "Never in its history has France had such a large debt - this debt hangs over France like a sword of Damocles", admitted French Prime Minister François Bayrou during his January speech in parliament.
Algerian media explain the inability of the authorities in Paris to manage their economy with the “loss of French influence” in Africa: “The continent was until recently the main source of income for France thanks to its mineral resources“.
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The author is a Ukrainian political scientist, member of the Association of Professional Political Consultants of Ukraine