In recent months, six African countries have asked France to withdraw its troops, significantly reducing France’s influence in the traditionally influential region.
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Ivory Coast has become the latest African country to join the ‘France Out’ campaign.
Within weeks of Senegal and Chad telling France to withdraw its troops from their territories, Ivory Coast also told France on Wednesday (January 1) that it must withdraw its troops.
These countries say they are forcibly evicting French soldiers due to sovereignty concerns, neo-colonial business practices and France’s patronizing attitude. We cannot overlook the fact that this took place at a time when Russia was expanding into the continent.
France is a former colonial power in West Africa and has played a traditional security role in the region. France has repeatedly intervened militarily over the years to contain Islamist insurgencies in the Sahel region, which includes the countries of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. However, such interventions have been used by critics to incite opposition to both France and the region’s elected governments.
Despite years of counterinsurgency efforts, at least six countries have asked France to withdraw its troops: Ivory Coast, Chad, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. If France withdraws from these countries, its military presence in the region will be limited to Djibouti and Gabon.
While other countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) have been ordered to leave their territories after coups, there have been no such coups in Senegal or Chad. Meanwhile, Gabon continues to host French troops despite the coup.
Ivory Coast’s decision surprised many concerned, as Ivory Coast has been a staunch ally of France. However, President Alassane Ouattara said in a speech broadcast to the nation on Tuesday night that the country’s military modernization is over and there is no longer a need for French soldiers.
“We are proud of our armed forces, which have completed their modernization. In this context, we have decided on a coordinated and systematic withdrawal of French troops from Ivory Coast,” Ouattara said.
In a recent joint statement published in the New York Times, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger referred to the French government as the “imperialist French military regime.” He further said that the French bases were merely an attempt to obscure France’s “neo-colonial tendencies” in the region.
Despite these countries’ eagerness to withdraw French troops, their absence has worsened the security situation in the region and led to an increase in terrorist attacks on civilians, according to the Associated Press. It is said that there is
Following the forced evacuation of French troops, Russian mercenaries entered the region.
Even before the Ivory Coast decision, the fate of French influence in the region appeared to be sealed. “Chad’s decision is the final nail in the coffin for France’s post-colonial military dominance across the Sahel,” Mukahid Durmaz, a senior analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, told The Associated Press. “It will be,” he said.
Additionally, Durmaz said the decisions by Senegal and Chad are “part of a broader structural change in engagement with France in the region, where the political and military influence of Paris continues to decline.”
