For these reasons, France left Mali. What is the future of its influence in Africa?

Paris -

After it started optimistically in 2013, and witnessed constructive cooperation and a serious alliance between France and Mali in the fight against jihadist groups, the relationship between the two countries has known rapid developments and interactions, and it has been increasing since the military junta led by Colonel Asimi Guita took power in Mali in August 2020.

After 9 and a half years, the "honeymoon" ended with his sweet memories and constructive cooperation, and the partnership and love contract was finally broken, and the relationship ended with an "irreversible divorce" with the departure of the last French soldier from Gao base in northern Mali.

With the last battalion of French soldiers crossing Malian territory to neighboring Niger, according to the French army, the French "Barkhane force" in the West African country was turned.

"The last battalion of the Barkhane force on Malian territory has left the border between Mali and Niger," the French General Staff said in a statement last Monday.

This withdrawal comes after the rapid deterioration of the relationship between the military junta in Bamako and Paris, the former colonial power, in recent months.

strategy lessons

Regarding the reasons and strategic lessons to be drawn from this “strategic political blow” that France received following the withdrawal process, Professor Mohamed Sharif Ferjani, Professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies at the University of Lyon, indicated that the failure of France’s intervention in Mali is not different from the failure of the United States’ intervention. United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And he explains, in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, that "these interventions are governed by the interests of the interfering forces in areas that are in conflict with others in order to control them, and therefore they are doomed to failure sooner or later."

Ferjani, head of the Supreme Scientific Council of the Timbuktu Institute for Islamic Studies in Africa, adds that "the first of these reasons is the neoliberal policies that the International Monetary Fund and financial institutions have imposed since the 1980s on African countries, and on other countries of the South, under the name of structural reforms." And openness, and in relation to these policies, countries were forced to abandon their social role, and all this did not understand and do not want to be understood by France and the United States.

patriarchal colonialism

As for the French political analyst and academic Pierre-Louis Raymond, he attributed the reasons for the failure to the fact that France did not anticipate changing the system of government in Mali, and did not expect that changing this system would change the nature of its relationship with the country, Mali and the new rulers.

And he continues, in his conversation with Al-Jazeera Net, that "it is not enough to consider the current system of government in Mali to be a coup regime, and it is inevitably the case, but what the French government team missed is that the angle of defense of democratic principles cannot be in harmony with the paternalistic logic that France behaves with, which It dominates its relations with all African countries.

He concludes that the lesson to be drawn today is "the necessity of dismantling the mindset of the love of control and the patriarchal logic that France wants to use towards African countries, which no longer works today and must be changed."

Redeploy

Two days after the withdrawal of its forces from Mali, the French Chief of Staff announced on Wednesday that it would keep 3,000 soldiers in the Sahel, explaining that these would "perform their duties from bases in Niger and Chad."

Barkhane's force numbered up to 5,500 soldiers at the height of its deployment in the Sahel.

The French army lost 59 soldiers during the 9 years of its deployment in the Sahel.

In addition to these French human losses, Ferjani believes that the largest losses will be in the economic field, because France - in his opinion - has lost and will lose many markets in Africa in favor of China, Russia and Turkey.

He continues that France's interests will be harmed because its intervention was linked to promises to support democratic reforms and the development of freedoms, human rights and welfare for those peoples, "but France's image is a distorted one in Africa, because it caused disasters, and kept blocking the door in the face of African youth who want to immigrate to Europe."

aggressive actions

Mali said Wednesday that its foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, sent a letter to the UN Security Council requesting an end to what he said were French "aggressive actions", in particular "the collection of intelligence information for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel and the dumping of weapons and ammunition to them."

In response to that message, Barkhane Force Commander General Bruno Baratz said Wednesday that this kind of accusation is "a bit insulting to the memory of our 59 colleagues who fell for Mali and to all the Malians who fought on our side."

For his part, the President of the Higher Scientific Council of the Timbuktu Institute for Peace Studies in Africa indicated that "these developments are a natural result of how the Barkhane operation ended in Mali, and of the factors that led to the failure of the French intervention. They are closely linked to the rapprochement of the new Malian authorities with Russia and China. ".

Ferjani believes that it is not surprising that the intelligence services of the various competing countries in Mali spy on each other and accuse each other of spying.

In addition, "this is an indication of what the struggle will be in the future between the major countries in Africa to impose their presence at the expense of each other."

In parallel, the French academic believes that the ruling authorities in Mali are dissatisfied with the French presence, which did not anticipate the possibility of the emergence of a new local player, so this speech is not surprising and it is clear that it uses inaccurate language.

He stressed that "France is not afraid of Mali's invitation to the Security Council to hold an emergency session, because its involvement in Operation Barkhane came in complete harmony with international law, and with a financial invitation in the first place."

new strategy

This withdrawal and redeployment comes within the framework of a new strategy announced by Paris last July, which places Niger as a fulcrum to confront terrorist organizations and Russian expansion in the Sahel.

During his recent visit to West Africa last month, President Macron outlined the major features of this strategy, which focuses on defence, diplomacy and development.

For his part, Raymond believes that this strategy can succeed, "provided that France focuses on the formative and developmental aspect, and moves away from the traditional paternalistic colonial image, and the mere military presence that makes it a mere colonial and invading power."

In parallel, Ferjani notes that "this new strategy is a continuation of the first camouflaging process. Not realizing the real causes of failure during the Mali period, and not taking its lessons and lessons."

He stresses that Macron's words are an attempt to cast dust on the eyes, because "Africans today no longer believe the promises of France and the West for democracy, development and human rights. Because they did not get anything before."