In military cooperation, African countries are looking for an alternative to the West

BY MIKE WEST

In recent years, Africa has attracted more and more attention of the leading countries of the world, as the potential of the African continent is huge.

However, not all States have good intentions towards actively developing and resource-rich African countries. Relations between the European Union and Africa can be called “cold”, due to the heavy colonial legacy.

Europe still considers Africa as a sphere of its traditional, “historical” influence, pursuing a policy of coercion and manipulations on the African continent, especially in the Sahara-Sahel zone, completely ignoring the solution of pressing problems of the region, such as political instability, internal crises, armed conflicts and the fragility of state bodies.

So, in June 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the suspension of Operation Barkhane, specializing in the fight against Islamist militants in the Sahel region in West Africa. This sudden decision was made just some days after Malian army Colonel Assimi Goïta came to power after overthrowing the second president in nine months.

Macron criticized the latest coup in Mali and said that France will not be able to continue sending soldiers to their deaths. Thus, after many years of presence, French troops could not cope with the threat, and President Emmanuel Macron decided to withdraw the army, literally leaving Bamako alone with the Islamists.

Another example of Western pressure on African governments is the suspension in June 2021 of aid and military cooperation between the Central African Republic and France. France has cut budget support to its former colony by 10 million euros ($12.18 million) and stopped direct military cooperation with the CAR, as the Central African government failed to stop “massive disinformation campaigns” against the Fifth Republic.

At a time when the European Union seeks to pursue its selfish interests, Africa is under the threat of terrorism and desperately needs strong allies capable of countering this threat. According to a 2020 UN study, the Sahel region has seen a devastating surge in terrorist attacks: in countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the number of victims associated with terrorism has increased fivefold since 2016.

The crises in the Sahelo-Saharan region are aggravated by the multidimensional insecurity in personal, economic, political, social, environmental, medical and other spheres. All this is the result not only of weakened State power, but also of the lack of international assistance.

Due to the ever-increasing security crisis, many African countries are in search of a strong ally capable of dealing with all emerging threats in the shortest possible time. Such an ally for Mali has become Russia, which has successfully proved itself in the fight against terrorism on the African continent. The Malian countries have recently been getting closer to Moscow, concluding military-technical cooperation with it, which causes an extremely negative reaction from the West. So, speaking at a press conference in January 2022, Defense Minister Florence Parly criticized the deployment of Russian military specialists in Mali, proving once again that Europe in general and France in particular have nothing to offer African countries except intimidation and manipulation.