SHADOWS OVER AFRICA

What are the factors that are influencing the political events shaking the African continent?

 

By Sidney Hey

Just when it seemed that the African continent was taking a hopeful turn out of the basement of the international community and out of dependence on its old European colonisers, the coups and the sudden uprising as seen in Sudan, the reappearance of rebel groups and jihadists begin to make it clear that all this is no accident.

The political instability that has been witnessed in the African states that have emerged from French colonialism goes far beyond simple power struggles between nationalists and pro-French rulers. Nor is it the suspected (by the Anglo-Saxon media) Russian hand that has fomented coups in states such as Niger and Gabon.

There is a reality of social inequalities, poverty and political corruption that has been working for the EU and in particular for France, which for decades has benefited from the precious natural resources and raw materials obtained at ridiculous prices by the metropolis. The new generations of Africans grew up watching this and are now aware of this swindle and seem determined to put an end to it.

Obviously, will is not enough. To change governments requires resources and external support to give political and especially economic predictability to such an abrupt change. As for the latter, the arrival of PMC Wagner members in Niger after the coup d'état does not imply the involvement of the Russian government. As a private company, Wagner is contracted to attend to the most diverse security matters that private clients and governments may request.

In what has been happening in West Africa and which seems to be spreading in a curious way, revealing that there are much more complex implications that clearly go against French interests and clearly, in the government meetings between Macron and his ministers, especially with the defence minister Sébastien Lecornu and his Chief of Staff, they already know with certainty who the real instigators behind each of these coups are. In the light of these revelations, it remains to be seen what measures the government will take to confront these interests and try to curb their agenda.

It is the US that seems determined not to make the mistake of past administrations in forgetting the global south. That is why for Biden and Co. today “Africa matters too”... but not for altruistic purposes, let alone for the benefit of Africans.

It is Washington that has a strong geostrategic interest in reformatting the black continent, especially the entire north-central part of the continent, and to this end the establishment of an operations command under Pentagon control called AFRICOM, the US will seek to replicate the operations that CENTCOM carried out on the other side of the Red Sea in the Arabian Peninsula to create that geopolitical Frankenstein that was called the "Enlarged Middle East".

AFRICOM, despite being headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, plans to soon extend its presence by installing bases for strategic purposes on African soil. In that plan, the Pentagon is preparing to set up a drone base at its 201st base in Niger, and is this by chance? The rationale for this command is to provide security and combat the jihadists of “Boko Haram”, an African extension of the Islamic State jihadist hoax run by Mukhabarat associates of some Gulf petromonarchy.

So it came as no surprise to Paris that several of the military personnel involved in the coups were trained by the US, with whom they still maintain close relations. Nor are the links of senior ECOWAS politicians and especially Nigerian President Bola Tinubu with the CIA. It is likely that the DGSE has more sensitive information on the extent of these plans and obviously because of the complex geopolitical implications this represents, Macron will have to manoeuvre carefully and feign control in the face of public opinion.

What is happening to France and what Macron must tolerate today, biting his tongue, is what the US has always done with its partners who, when their useful life is over, are treated as “expendable elements”. This is what the Biden administration seems to have decided after 22 years of French intervention, promoted by Washington under the guise of the fight against terrorism and especially after collaborating in the overthrow and assassination of Libyan leader Mohammed Gaddafi in 2010, who threatened to create the gold dinar as an alternative to the dollar.

It is definitely clear that the Americans no longer need their French employees. They were useful to play the “fight against terrorism” game of pseudo-Islamist organisations like “Al Qaeda” and “ISIS” created by the CIA as tactical pawns on Washington's geopolitical chessboard.

As can be seen, NATO is only useful when US interests are at risk. Now it is with bitterness that Macron, like all Europeans, is coming to realise this situation. As for the French, their services are dispensable not only because they have the military contacts within the new de facto governments but also because more units and troops directed from AFRICOM will soon be landing on the continent to establish effective command and control on the ground.

With these manoeuvres, Washington and its Anglo-Saxon partners are making explicit their terror of the BRICS' advance, which is replicating the consequences of the G-77 (plus China), especially with regard to Chinese investments in the continent, and from a more macro point of view, this is evidence of their loss of influence in the global south.