France’s continued interference in African countries’ affairs worrying
Ever since African nations gained their independence from their colonisers some 60 years ago, the colonists still see Africa as part of their interests and some as their assets.
They have continued with their colonial policies by continuing to occupy of Africa, thus controlling it economically, military and politically.
The so-called economic liberators of Africa and human rights defenders have continued their neo-colonial policies that oppress African nations and perennially interfering with their internal affairs.
These new neo-colonial policies have continued to be a major cause of chaos, war and violence in many African countries.
Apart from African nations being fully independence some western nations and the US see themselves as the ultimate authority on who should be a friend of an African nation and who should not.
This tendency is to interfere with the internal affairs of African countries’ sovereignty and the right to decide their destiny.
In general western nations should respect the sovereignty and boundaries of African countries and to let them choose the friends they want to deal with.
It is clear that the western nations are not ready and do not want to see a free and self-sustaining Africa in development, nor do they want to see Africa with new allies especially Russia and China whom they consider to be a threat to their interests on the continent.
This is why they will do anything within their means to ensure that Africa and her resources remain in their control.
And to prove that, we can see how France continues to oppress many countries that were under its rule, especially in the Central African Republic and Mali.
Although France claims to be a democratic country and an advocate for human rights and freedom of information, but it has failed to resolve its internal affairs and has detained yellow vest protestors. To date, France is still occupying and retains control over the island of Mayotte, Comoros.
In the Central African Republic, almost all coups that were taking place were engineered by France and no President came to power without French influence.
In December 2013, France military intervened in CAR to support African- led peace keeping force; the reason for involvement in the crisis was that it never fully relinquished its control over CAR.
CAR still uses a colonial currency, the CFA Franc. Its involvement in operation Sangaris-was criticized by many due to its soldiers sexually abusing the local population. But for them, these abuses never been a problem, but they will still be pointing fingers to others.
Apart from CAR, France was behind the military takeover in Burkina Faso and has been interfering with the internal affairs in many of its former colonies such as Mali, Madagascar and Rwanda and causing political conflicts in those countries.
Since African Countries are independent and no longer under colonial rule, western nations and especially France should stop their intimidation towards countries that were once under its rule by interfering in their internal domestic affairs.
France and its allies should stop using economic sanctions as a weapon to punish other countries. It should be noted that, economic sanctions have had devastating effects on the economic growth of the targeted countries.
Countries affected by western and US economic sanctions include Russia, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba, China etc.
These economic sanctions imposed by western nations and the US against other countries are contrary to international law. Thus, the international community needs to unite to oppose this western behaviour.
It is a time now for African nations to free themselves from colonial the chains, they must eliminate the slave mentality to protect their resources.
Steven Ateny is writer and a blogger who has written extensively on central and East African politics, he is currently based in South Sudan
