In January 2013, the French army appeared to be a “savior” and the prestige of Paris seemed to be in the sky after the soldiers of Operation Serval took control of the northern Mali towns that were controlled by jihadists in a jiffy, but that euphoria was like a short-lived peace, he left The last French soldiers left the country without much fanfare less than 10 years after they were expelled by the military junta that took power in Bamako, diminishing French influence everywhere in Africa, giving way to the influence of Moscow and Beijing.
With this introduction, Charlotte Lallan opened an article in the French magazine L'express, explaining how the French were immediately replaced by those she said were Russian mercenaries, as these Slavic "war dogs" - as the writer put it - are not at the beginning of their experience in In Africa, it has been roaming and roaming there since 2018 and getting gold and diamonds in exchange for providing security for the current Central African President, Faustin-Archange Touadéra.
The writer warned that French companies lost half of their share of the African market in 20 years to China, Germany or India, after the demonstrations against them increased from Dakar to Niamey through N'Djamena, where hundreds of people came out shouting, "France, leave."
The writer cited some African aversion to France for policies she considers “short-sighted and permanently harmful to France,” including “raising tuition fees for non-Europeans,” Corentin Cohen says in a Carnegie Endowment memo, and “if Francophonie is limited to Paris telling Africans, “Speak up.” French (...) But stay at home, it would be illogical," says Bakary Samneba, regional director of the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute.
Waterloo is intellectual, military and political
Cameroonian historian Achille Mbembe says that France "no longer has the necessary means to realize its ambitions."
Mbembe - who was commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 to think about "re-establishing" in Africa - that "France is about to fall into an intellectual, military, political and economic "Waterloo", that is, in a complete defeat that no one will seek to approach it after," as he put it. .
Over the years, Paris multiplied its mistakes. Neither former French President Jacques Chirac nor his Prime Minister Lionel Jospin traveled to Dakar to attend the funeral of former Senegalese President Leopold Sedar Senghor, the poet, academic and symbol of the link between France and Africa.
In 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a public speech that "the tragedy of Africa is that the African man has not entered history enough." Mbembe also considered that the Libyan issue was one of Sarkozy's sins whose influence has not yet ended.
The heir to this history, current French President Emmanuel Macron, told students of the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso that he wanted to "reinvent friendship", and he admitted France's "grave responsibility" for the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.
But the French military presence - which is represented in 4 bases in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Djibouti, in addition to Operation Serval - is hated by the population, as "France is still a former colonial power, and its soldiers are basically not welcome there," as the writer says.
Despite the interim success in Operation Serval, which turned into a "Barkhane", what was expected of local governments did not happen, but France maintained its support for the outcast leaders and for a long time preferred a strategy "centered around the army", and considered the coast as a display area and a training ground for its men and equipment, to find share in the arms market.
Although many diplomats warned of the dangers of inertia and the suspicious practices of some of France's allies, Evelyn Décor, the former French ambassador in Bamako - who did not compliment in her talk about the administration of the President of the Republic of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and the approach of the French army there - says that she alerted the French Foreign Ministry and intelligence services to Pro-Russian speeches appeared in Bamako, followed by news that Moscow had signed 30 agreements on security cooperation with Africa.
economic setback
On the other hand, Cameroon - which was once dominated by France - illustrates the other economic setback this time for France's policy, as the writer says, as China today is dominant as the first supplier of goods in about 30 countries, and it has contracts that include the Grand National Theater in Dakar, The deep-water port of Kribi in Cameroon, the highway to Nairobi airport in Kenya, and the iconic tallest tower in Africa are under construction near Cairo.
The writer adds that in this war of influence, "French companies are far from competing with Chinese companies in public works contracts, as Niger Foreign Minister Hassoumi Masoudou says, because the French prefer Europe or Asia because they consider us small markets."
And she concludes that over 10 years, French direct investment has fallen by 18% at a time when Paris's image has deteriorated in the eyes of opinion leaders, ranking ninth among the partners considered "the most beneficial" to the continent, according to the author.