Mali, then Burkina Faso, and at last Niger have skilled coups d’état and subsequently fashioned the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). These navy juntas are pursuing a unified coverage of worldwide rapprochement, a shared technique within the combat towards jihadists, and a standard rhetoric across the defence of nationwide sovereignty. What ought to we make of this new actuality for West Africa? Some see these coup leaders as new heralds of Africa’s liberation. Sadly, the fact is kind of completely different.
The widespread thread amongst these three coups is that they’re directed towards French coverage. This isn’t the identical, for instance, because the coup in Gabon, a Central African nation additionally a part of France’s sphere of affect.
The disaster is so profound that French troopers have been expelled, diplomatic missions closed, and French nationals are thought-about persona non grata.
France’s unacknowledged African historical past
There are a number of causes of this comprehensible fashionable rejection, significantly the youth. There may be, after all, the historical past of France’s relations with African international locations, marked by slavery and colonialism, facets of which many French politicians nonetheless view positively.
France’s neocolonial coverage post-independence was often called “Françafrique”. The previous colonial energy maintained its financial and monetary dominance with the continued use of the CFA franc, a foreign money assured by the French Treasury. Navy domination has additionally continued, with French troops stationed in Gabon, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, and Djibouti. And that is with out mentioning the greater than 60 navy interventions on the continent since independence. The intervention in Libya met with sturdy opposition and destabilised the Sahel area. France’s complicity within the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda stays a painful reminiscence.
Confrontation with French coverage
A French journalist printed a ebook entitled Conceited as a Frenchman in Africa, a phrase aptly describing how French authorities have lower themselves off from African youth. We keep in mind the statements of a former president who declared in Dakar that “the African man has not entered historical past” and President Macron’s disdainful joke about his counterpart in Burkina Faso insinuating that he was leaving the room to repair the air con. The unfair and humiliating visa coverage additionally contributes to this notion.
France is seen as an Islamophobic and racist nation because of its therapy of migrants and discriminatory insurance policies towards members of the African diaspora.
The failure of French navy operations within the Sahel
France’s incapacity to eradicate the jihadist risk on this area is a significant explanation for the rift. The French military intervened first in Mali with Operation Serval. This operation, mistakenly thought-about a hit, merely dispersed Islamist teams, who shortly reorganised and launched more and more daring assaults. The French authorities then launched into a broader operation, Barkhane, overlaying all Sahel international locations. Regardless of eight years of intervention, Islamists have superior in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, resulting in widespread misunderstanding and even conspiracy theories a few supposed alliance between France and the Islamists.
The reality is, after all, fairly completely different. French authorities did not see that the insurgencies had been grafted onto recurring issues which various in line with the territory. These included land and water competitors between herders (primarily Fulani) and farmers, challenges to the rigidity of social buildings by younger folks, or revolts by descendants of slaves and different marginalised households. Moreover, Islamist actions provide many younger folks remuneration by way of numerous trafficking actions. France’s response was purely security-oriented. Worse, in Mali in 2017, folks on the Nationwide Reconciliation Convention urged authorities to begin negotiations with the belligerents. France firmly opposed this whereas on the similar time negotiating and paying ransoms for the discharge of French hostages.
Coups as responses to fashionable mobilisation
The coups occurred amid important fashionable mobilisations denouncing each corrupt regimes and their incapacity to resolve the safety disaster.
In Mali, massive demonstrations preceded the coup. These had been led by a coalition, the June 5 Motion — Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP), composed of events and Islamic associations. A minority faction of the M5-RFP, led by Choguel Maïga, supported the junta.
In Burkina Faso, a revolution in 2014 toppled Blaise Compaoré’s dictatorship and the French navy facilitated Compaoré’s escape from the nation. This was adopted by the election of President Roch Kaboré, whose poor safety report facilitated the navy coup.
Niger’s case is barely completely different. The coup by Normal Tiani, head of the presidential guard, resulted from an inside battle inside the Nigerien Social gathering for Democracy and Socialism, which dominated the nation.
Nevertheless, in all three instances, the juntas appeared as saviours and loved some fashionable help.
The position of ECOWAS and French criticism
The recognition of the juntas was bolstered by the coverage of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS). Below the pretext of restoring constitutional order, ECOWAS imposed a harsh financial embargo that primarily affected populations already hard-hit by the COVID-19 disaster. ECOWAS even threatened navy intervention towards Niger whereas endorsing all electoral frauds. On the similar time, French authorities constantly criticised the juntas publicly. Macron even refused to adjust to Niger’s demand for French troops to go away, deeming the federal government illegitimate. The juntas took benefit of this to withdraw from the regional construction and type the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), an financial and navy alliance.
Are the Juntas progressive?
The coup leaders have adopted a sovereigntist, anti-French, and anti-Western discourse that aligns completely with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ideology. Democracy is criticised as an externally imposed and unsuitable system for African traditions or as ineffective.
Is the promised success evident? Clearly not. The safety state of affairs is deteriorating considerably, with jihadists controlling huge territories. The current assault on the Mansila barracks in Burkina Faso, the place over 100 troopers perished, demonstrates the juntas’ incapacity to withstand. Satirically, the detractors of France have pursued the identical security-focused coverage and reject any political resolution to the battle. Using pricey Wagner mercenaries has resulted in quite a few massacres, comparable to in Moura, the place over 500 civilians had been killed by mercenaries and Malian troopers. Niger has enlisted the companies of a Turkish mercenary firm, SADAT. In Burkina Faso, the junta has created poorly armed and educated militias, the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDP), who’re straightforward targets for Islamist teams and sometimes goal the Fulani group.
Suppression of democracy and repression
Because the disaster deepens, the juntas weaken and reply by shrinking democratic area. Political actions are banned, and leaders are both arrested or exiled, as with Oumar Mariko, chief of a radical left-wing Malian organisation. The press is censored, opponents are imprisoned or despatched to the entrance traces with the VDP, as occurred in Burkina Faso to lawyer Man-Hervé Kam, co-founder of the militant civil society organisation “Balai Citoyen,” and the previous international minister, even on the age of 70. Union leaders, comparable to Moussa Diallo of Burkina Faso’s Normal Confederation of Labour, are persecuted.
Some could also be deceived by the juntas’ sovereigntist and even anti-imperialist rhetoric, which merely mimics different African dictators. Accused of corruption or electoral fraud, they defend themselves by adopting anti-colonialist rhetoric to vilify their opponents.
In observe, the juntas are indistinguishable from different dictatorships: similar censorship, similar repression, similar electoral fraud, similar corruption. The one distinction is their allegiance to Putin. These tempted by the “the enemy of my enemy is my good friend” coverage disregard the pursuits of the folks of these international locations and miss out on that the juntas haven’t freed them from neocolonialism; they’ve merely modified masters.
[Reprinted from amandla.org. Paul Martial is the editor of Afriques en lute.]
