If there is something for which Emanuel Macron will go down in history,
it is the presidency of the Republic during which the liquidation of theFrench presence in Africa took place. This presence that was based on
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), established on
the initiative of France definitively on 28 May 1975, when fifteen
African countries signed the Treaty of Lagos today seems to have
definitively entered into crisis, although equipped with memoranda of
understanding defined in detail on 5 November 1976, in Lomé and
completed by the Treaty modified in 1993, having now clearly failed in
its main purpose which was cooperation for the security of West
Africa.[1]The French presence in Africa which in recent years has
required 52 interventions to support the stability of the countries
belonging to the organization and has been put into crisis most recently
by the birth of the Confederation between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
which marks a redefinition of the geopolitical balances and military
alliances in the Sahel. What happened was imposed by the state of
necessity determined by the fact that over the years the attacks of the
jihadist movements present in the area have increased, putting the
governments of these countries in crisis without the French troops that
were garrisoning them to protect them being able to contain and defeat them.
Countries of the Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'ouest
- (CEDEAO - ECOWAS).
It must be considered that the Sahel area, like the rest of the Central
African continent, which goes from the Gulf of Guinea to the coasts of
the Pacific Ocean is characterized for a large part by the presence of
former French colonies where the majority of the population is Islamic.
However, this is a particular Islamism, the one constituted mostly by
the Muslim brotherhoods that are a typical presence in the marginal
areas of expansion of Islam. In these areas, in fact, the Islamic
component hybridizes, in contact with religious orientations of an
animist nature. With other cults, indigenous and tribal contradictions,
creating a cultural mix that in these years of re-Islamization of the
areas of the world of Islamic culture has constituted one of the main
objectives of action of Al Qaeda as well as of its other jihadist
branches including Boko Haram.Under the push of a sort of international
Wahhabi, guerrilla and insurrectional formations have arisen whose
objective is to bring the hybridized populations back to the observance
of a pure Islam under the slogan "Western education is prohibited".
The French military presence in the area, the support provided by the
10,000 soldiers present in the French bases in Africa as of 2020 to
friendly governments, has not succeeded in effectively countering the
penetration of these movements. On the other hand, this result could not
be achieved, given that France has not resolved the problem of the
relationship with the spread of Islam, seen by Muslims, even in the
metropolitan territory, as the religion of redemption from colonial
exploitation that has characterized the its presence in Africa. Indeed,
the draining of natural, mineral and economic resources continued, based
on a positional rent that derived from the old colonial relationship,
perpetuating privileged economic ties both with regard to the
prospecting of mineral resources and the exploitation of the land, and
with regard to the management of the productive resources of the various
countries. The situation was aggravated by the monetary control
exercised by the French through the management of the CFA franc[2]- the
colonial currency still linked to a fixed exchange rate with the euro
guaranteed by the Bank of France, adopted by most of the countries of
West and Central Africa.[3]The contingents sent by the countries
belonging to the EDEAO managed to do better, but they failed in the
objective of countering jihadist attacks. It was of no use that France
tried to replace the relationship with the organization with the
construction of new partnerships free from the burden of the colonial
past, because the Macronian initiative ended in a substantial failure
since the Russians took the place of the French, who through Wagner and
similar organizations and bodies offered protection to local
governments, to the point that we witnessed the simultaneous departure
of French soldiers, while on the same day Russian planes landed their
new protectors on the runway of the same airport. Despite this, the
jihadist insurrectional forces control about 60% of the largely desert
territory between the three states.
There is no doubt that the closure of French military bases in West
Africa and the Sahel marks the crisis of a certain way of conducting and
imagining France's African policy in the face of Russia's affirmation as
an alternative partner in the defense of all the countries in the Sahel
belt.[4]It must be said that in trying to resist Russian penetration,
the French have an unexpected ally in the Ukrainian secret services
that, in an anti-Russian function, are increasingly committed to
training and supporting jihadist militias. Hence the decision of these
countries to interrupt diplomatic relations with Kiev.
The Confederation between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger
After detaching from CEDEAO - ECOWAS, the three countries have
strengthened their military collaboration with the aim of improving
security through the sharing of resources and information to give a
joint response to terrorism. The three countries, which had already
signed the defensive agreement to counter the growing insecurity in
their territories, have now announced the birth of a real "Confederation
of the Sahel States", (AES), underlining the desire for broader
cooperation in the political, economic and sustainable development fields.
By pooling their resources, the three countries aim to defend internal
stability, the vulnerability of state contracts that favors the
existence of strong socio-economic inequalities, accentuated by the
peculiar territorial conformation of the region, which has desert areas
and difficult to access. The defeat of the jihadists is essential to
guarantee peace and stability to the populations, regain control of the
territories in order to exploit their precious natural resources to
allocate the fruits of this activity to improving the living conditions
of the populations. To this end, the AES governments are proceeding with
the nationalization of some resources such as gold and uranium for what
concerns Niger - which supplies 2/3 of the uranium that powers the
French nuclear power plants); they are doing the same with the companies
that manage the construction of infrastructures, such as roads and
railways, etc., in addition to distributing technical resources to
farmers for agriculture such as pumps, generators, thus ensuring popular
support. These policies seem to be inspired by the collaborative
relationships with Russia, from which it seems to have learned the
lesson assimilated to the lesson of the Chinese regarding the
relationships to be established with African governments, reaping the
benefits if it is true that thanks to the prospecting licenses obtained,
GAZPROM seems to have identified (unexpectedly) good quality oil
deposits in Burkina Faso: which is to say that the French have been left
dumbfounded and beaten. Furthermore, the existence of a single armed
force should allow to contain and defeat the disorders caused by local
armed militias and prevent insurrections of smaller ethnic groups, as in
the case of the Tuareg, as well as the consolidation of the political
power of the respective governments, providing a response to the crisis
involving the countries that are part of the Confederation. In the
opinion of the three governments, remaining in ECOWAS had become
incompatible because the organization was too tied to the interests of
Paris to maintain control of its former colonial empire and was
therefore disliked by the people. Hatred and anti-imperialist
resentment, anti-colonialism, continued exploitation by France, have led
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to prefer the establishment of relations
with Russia, which through the sale of weapons, support for military
training, and political support for the governments in office, is
increasing its influence in the area. Not only that, but the good
relations with Russia have acted as an intermediary for the three
countries to gain access to the sea through the establishment of close
relations with Guinea with which Russia has long had excellent
collaborative relations, both economic and military. Needless to say,
what is happening is worrying the United States quite a bit, as
demonstrated by the recent questioning in the US Senate in which General
Langley (commander of the African Command of the Marines) tried to
discredit the president of Burkina Faso Traorè, stating that he
speculates on the gold that has just been nationalized.
Beyond the Confederation
It is a fact that today Russia has supplanted France in a good part of
what was its empire by distributing its presence across the entire belt
of sub-Saharan Africa. It should be noted that starting from the borders
of the Confederation and moving eastwards, Russian military bases and
presences are encountered in southern Libya; it should be noted that in
November 2024, Chad requested the end of military cooperation with
France, which led to the withdrawal of approximately 1,000 French
soldiers present in the country, marking the beginning of a geopolitical
reorganisation that sees Russia as an emerging protagonist. Recent
events relating to the Central African Republic have also created the
conditions in this country for a penetration of the Russian military
presence, while Russia's presence is growing in South Sudan where a
large proselytism campaign by the Russian Orthodox Church is also
underway, which is having unexpected success.[5]To complete the picture,
a separate discussion should be made with respect to Ethiopia, which is
going through a particular situation.[6]There is no doubt that this
change is part of a context of growing international competition and
internal challenges for the entire area that by irreversibly damaging
the position of the French presence in Africa pushes France in Europe to
have further motivations to be part of the coalition of the so-called
willing to support Ukraine in order to oppose Russia.
When it is selling in Central Africa It brings this area out of the
shadows and brings it to the forefront of international geopolitical
confrontation. This is because the concentration of raw materials that
enriches its territories constitutes one of the strategic objectives of
the new balances that are being defined. And it makes it a battlefield
for the confrontation between the in a world between the powers in a
multipolar world.
If equipped with attentive and responsible leadership, these countries
could take advantage of the occasion to enter the international debate
and seize the opportunities to establish more balanced relations with
the various international actors, also taking into account the fact that
at least one of these, China, operates with a less conditioning strategy
than the other actors, while the European Union, burdened by the fact of
being the former colonial power, albeit through proximate national
states, appears completely marginalized and certainly late in developing
a cooperation policy capable of earning fair and supportive relations
with these countries.
[1]G. Cimbalo, The Islamic brotherhoods in the Balkans: a model of
plural European Islam, in "Daimon", Yearbook of comparative law of
religions, Il Mulino Bologna, 2009, pp. 225-245.; ID. Africa in
miniature. First notes on law and religion in Cameroon, Cultural and
religious rights between Africa and Europe (edited by F. Alicino and F.
Botti), Giappichelli Editore, Bari, 2011; The Editorial Staff, Modern
Islamic fundamentalism, child of globalization, Newsletter Crescita
Politica, N. 68, October. 2014,
http://www.ucadi.org/2021/03/28/il-fondamentalismo-islamico-moderno-figlio-della-globalizzazione/
[2]Respectively called "West African CFA franc" (in French: franc
Communauté Financière Africaine) and "Central African CFA franc" (in
French: franc Coopération Financière en Afrique centrale), these coins
are used as official currencies by 14 African states and printed and
issued respectively by the "Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de
l'Ouest - BCEAO and the Bank of the Central African States" Banque des
États de l'Afrique Centrale - BEAC. They constitute a tool with which
France effectively maintains partial control over its former colonies;
although it has contributed to reducing monetary volatility in the
African states that use it, thanks to it, Paris favors its influence and
its exports in the area. A. GASPARDO, Is the CFA franc a French
instrument of control of former African colonies? What it is and how it
works, geopop.it/
[3]It should be emphasized, however, that these agreements concern only
the West African Monetary Union (Umoa, Union Monétaire Ouest Africaine)
whose Eco currency project has suffered several slowdowns, while there
is still no framework agreement with the Central African Monetary Union
(Umac, Union Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale).
[4]In Gabon a self-administered coup d'état, published on September 21,
2023 by Ucadi in Newsletter, Number 176 - September 2023, Year 2023; The
African quagmire, published on August 18, 2023 by Ucadi in Newsletter,
Number 175 - August 2023, Year 2023.
5]Sudan, a war on our doorstep, Newsletter Crescita Politica, N. 171,
May 2023,
https://www.ucadi.org/2023/05/29/sudan-una-guerraalle-porte-di-casa/;
Delocalized wars, Published on March 2, 2025 by Ucadi in Number 194 -
February 2025, Newsletter, Year 2025.
[6]Dr. Artam, Ethiopia: internal problems and international actors in
the crisis, Newsletter Crescita Politica, n°141, December 13, 2020,
https://www.ucadi.org/2020/12/13/etiopia-problemi-interni-e-attori-internazionali-nella-crisi/;
ID., Ethiopia: internal conflict and destabilization of the Horn of
Africa, Newsletter Crescita Politica, N. 139, Nov. 2020.
The Editorial Staff
https://www.ucadi.org/2025/05/25/francia-africa-addio/
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