Analysis: Response to Niger coup by Mali, Burkina Reveals Disdain for France, West

By Hans Ngala

The recent wave of coups sweeping across West Africa, recently hit the country of Niger too. On July 26, the country’s president Mohammed Bazoum was toppled by a military junta led by Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guards unit, who has since declared himself Niger’s new ruler.

The trend follows similar patterns seen in countries that have also experienced coups in the region including Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and is the seventh coup to take place in the West-Central Africa region in less than 3 years.

However, there has been a rather unexpected response to the coups – their popularity among the ordinary masses of these countries which have experienced the coups. While all of the countries have one thing in common: all are former colonies of France; the coups and the response they have generated from citizens in these countries reveal something deeper – a long-running contempt for France.

And it is understandable (not that we condone military take-overs), but the relationship of France with its former colonies in Africa must be studied more closely in order for one to understand why these countries felt led to topple their democratically-elected governments. These countries continue to chafe under France, using the CFA Franc, pegged to the former French Franc, France has to be their favoured development partner unless France waives it rights to these contracts. Also at stake is the discontent with France’s long military presence claiming to fight terrorist groups in the region linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda for over a decade but with seemingly not much success, leading to distrust of the French among the populations in these countries.

While both France and the US maintain military bases in Niger and in most countries in West and Central Africa, France is often distrusted and this mistrust goes back many decades. At the dawn of independence in the 1960s, France obliged her former colonies in Africa to pay a colonial tax for the “development” which the French brought about in these countries. Never mind the combined millions of souls that the French killed in the most brutal way for resisting their rule – the beheadings, razing of villages, hangings etc, with French Cameroun feeling the pinch itself with its Maquizar wars in the 1950s.

In the particular case of Niger’s coup, Col. Amadou Abdramane, one of the coup leaders, said the toppled government has authorized France to attack the presidential palace to try and free Mr. Bazoum.

What Niger’s Coup Reveals

The response of Niger’s neighbours such as Mali, Burkina Faso and () has been one of complacency with the junta. There has not been condemnation from these countries which went through coups of their own in recent years. In fact, the masses made it clear that they wanted nothing to do with France (and by implication the broader West) and favoured a closer alliance with Russia.

On Sunday July 29, protesters gathered in hordes outside the French embassy in Niger, venting out their ire against the French, chanting “Long live Russia”, “Long live Putin” and “Down with France” and also set fire to the walls of the embassy compound according to a BBC news report.

The Chadian leader, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, whose country borders Niger to the east, took a more diplomatic approach, preferring to push for mediation in the country. Itno himself was brought to power by the military in 2021 after his father was killed in battle and is seen by some to enjoy a friendlier relationship with the French who also maintain military bases in his country.

His push for calm can be seen as a means to prevent the civil unrest in Niger from spilling over into Chad and worsening his own domestic affairs as the eastern frontier of Chad still struggles with an influx of refugees from Sudan following the tumultuous events there in June (confirm date).

One thing is for sure, France is being exposed for its hypocrisy in these recent developments. The French remain strongly present in Africa, more than 50 years after granting her former colonies “independence” and while the French are accused of planning to attack the presidential palace to try and free Mr. Bazoum, the BBC reports that “France did not confirm or deny the claim”, leaving the country’s true intensions to be anyone’s guess.

Some are asking why France doesn’t leave her former colonies alone and mind her own business and others see France and her Western partners using Niger as a pawn to show their prowess against the Russians – again revealing that their interest is not really Niger, hence the support for the Russians and Chinese who have been awarded several construction projects in many parts of Africa to the chagrin of the French and other Western governments.

Hans Ngala is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa. He writes about politics, religion and health.