The United States Targeting Its Allies’ Influence: France in Africa as a Prominent Example
On the day of arbitration in Dumat al-Jandal in 37 AH (658 CE): “O Ibn ‘Abbas, what should I do? I am being enfeebled through my companions, and they became weak and weary of war.” i Mu‘awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan had appointed ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas as arbitrator, and when Ali ibn Abi Talib wanted to appoint ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas or Al-Ahnaf ibn Qais for arbitration, the Yemen faction refused and said, “The decision should not be entrusted to one of them unless one of them is Yemenite.”
Similarly, France is being weakened by its allies, the United States and Britain, both globally and in its former colonies. Its influence in Africa has diminished to the extent that the military council in Mali, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, expelled the French “Operation Barkhane” from Mali in 2022. The military council in Burkina Faso, led by Colonel Ibrahim Traoré, coerced the withdrawal of French troops from the country in 2023. The military council in Niger has also been pushing for the departure of the 1600 French troops from its territory since the end of July 2023, in addition to expelling the French ambassador from Niamey, the capital of Niger. While France is confused, weak, and unable to reform its posture, its allies are awaiting the unfolding of Paris’s relationships with its former colonial capitals.
In addition, Britain opened the door of the Commonwealth to former Francophone countries aligned with its disposition, such as Cameroon, Chad, and Togo, further adding pressure on France. Meanwhile, the United States seizes every misstep, failure, or French setback in the world in general and in Africa in particular. Washington abstained from condemning the overthrow of President Mohammed Bazoum’s presidential guard as a military coup, aiming to avoid the legal consequences associated with it, such as the freezing of military, financial, and technical aid, imposing sanctions and restrictions on the new leadership, and halting diplomatic and military communications with them. Shortly after, Victoria Nuland, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs, visited Niger, meeting with the American liaison officer General Moussa Parmo without hesitation. Despite failing to meet with the detained President Mohammed Bazoum and the new leader Omar Abdul Rahman Cheianiii, France viewed this as a betrayal and a stab in the alliance. The situation worsened as Washington refrained from describing the movement of officers in Gabon and the overthrow of President Ali Bongo in August 2023 as a military coup, despite him being a long-standing ally and the son of a steadfast ally to France in Africa.
Political observers may rightfully argue that Russia is keen on pursuing and undermining French influence in Africa. However, they overlook the fact that the United States is even more determined than Russia and China to extinguish French influence in Africa.
Undoubtedly, Russia had succeeded in displacing France from some of its traditional strongholds in Africa through its special military arm, the Wagner Group (before its authority weakened with the death of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in August 2023). This was evident in countries like the Central African Republic, where Russia’s influence was such that it provided President Faustin-Archange Touadéra with protection and special guards. Russia also revealed vulnerabilities in France’s strongholds in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Russia has been competing with France for some time in the traditional French stronghold of Chad, where France clashed with the former Soviet Union and Libya during Gaddafi’s era at the end of the 1970s, vying for influence and control. France supported President Goukouni Oueddei at one point, then supported his rival, President Hissène Habré. Eventually, France forced the Libyan army to withdraw from northern Chad in 1987.
Afterward, things settled for President Idriss Déby until his death in April 2021. France continued to support his son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, since his assumption of power. However, Russia is currently also competing for influence in Chad.
However, in a purely quantic political reality, France, Russia, and the forces of General Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi joined forces to combat Chadian opposition and support the government in N’Djamena. Russians, French, and Haftar’s forces bombed Chadian opposition bases in southern Libya and northern Chad in August 2023.
Russia challenging France’s influence in Africa is a classic scenario. However, according to the rules of classical politics, it is not justifiable for the United States to compete with and pursue French influence in Africa. This is not unprecedented in American relations with its allies since the United States became a pole in the international system in 1945.
Washington and London diverged during the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in the winter and summer of 1945. At that time, Washington thwarted Britain’s efforts led by Winston Churchill to preserve its global status, which it had held for over two centuries prior. The United States deprived Britain of sharing and benefiting from the spoils of World War II, prevented it from dividing Europe into spheres of influence with exclusive dominance for Britain, hindered Britain’s expansion of influence in the Mediterranean, and leaned towards sharing influence and control with the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin. This sidelined Britain and completely excluded France in a strange and classic political incident.
When Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, and France, Britain, and Israel decided to invade it, the United States and the Soviet Union united in rejecting and denouncing this action. President Dwight Eisenhower warned the three countries against escalating the war on Egypt. He ordered the deprivation of Britain from American loans, as well as loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Britain urgently needed these loans to address its deep economic crisis and the Sterling exchange crisis, which was under immense pressure. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev threatened to use nuclear weapons against them. As a result, the three nations stepped back from the war, and Nasser emerged victorious.
The United States also disappointed Britain’s hope of protecting the remnants of its empire in Egypt and the Suez Canal in 1956; it had already shattered France’s hopes of safeguarding its empire, especially in Asia and French Indochina, when the United States refrained from rescuing the French army in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 against the Vietnamese forces led by Ho Chi Minh. The French had sought help from their American allies and implored them for assistance. However, the Americans refused to intervene; although American bombers on the island of Guam were capable of aiding them and bombing the positions of the Vietnamese army to support the French, the Americans chose not to assist.
However, since 1945, the Americans had based their strategy on the principle that American influence would replace British and French influence wherever it was, driven by Washington’s awareness of the decline of these two poles. There was an imperative for their forces to depart from their colonies worldwide.
Britain understood the aims of the United States and aligned with them, handing over the reins of influence in its traditional geopolitical spheres. Accordingly, Britain began withdrawing from overseas territories and colonies, completing its withdrawal at the onset of the 1970s. American influence replaced British influence in most of its former colonies and geopolitical spheres.
On the other hand, France persists and remains determined to protect its influence overseas, especially in Africa, for geopolitical, economic, and cultural reasons.
The United States compelled France to withdraw from Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, Senegal, and other countries in the second half of the twentieth century.
Because of the rigid nature of French politics since presidency of François Mitterrand (1981-1995), and through the presidencies of Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, and the peculiar, whimsical, and amateurish politics of Emmanuel Macron since 2017, France is losing its last strongholds in Africa.
In his famous interview with The Atlantic in 2016, American President Barack Obama expressed regret for following the plan of French President Sarkozy to bomb Libya, overthrow the Gaddafi regime, and leave the country destroyed without a viable alternative. Since then, U.S. policy diverged from French policy in Libya. Washington aligned itself with the Government of National Accord led by Fayez al-Sarraj and supported it internationally. When the forces of General Khalifa Haftar, with Russian-French-Saudi-Emirati backing, sought to take control of Tripoli, the United States pushed Turkey to send its troops to Tripoli via the Mediterranean in 2019. This almost led to Turkish ships engaging with French and German ships when the latter were implementing a UN Security Council decision to enforce an arms embargo on Libya under the “Operation Irini” framework, which European countries agreed on to prevent the flow of weapons and mercenaries to Libya.
Washington supported Ankara in Libya and prevented France from gaining control of Libya by preventing the fall of Tripoli into the hands of Haftar’s forces in 2020.
The United States also ensnared France in the fight against radical Islamic movements in the Sahel and desert region in “Operation Barkhane” since 2013. France continues to face challenges in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and the Central African Republic, while the United States remains reluctant. This became evident in Niger when General James Hecker, the Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, announced the “resumption of U.S. military drone flights and aircraft outside the bases in Niger more than a month after the coup.” iii
It seemed as if the meeting between Victoria Nuland and General Moussa Parmo led to the establishment of a status quo where the U.S. refrains from characterizing the movement in Niger as a military coup in exchange for maintaining American military bases in Niamey and Agadez (920 km away from Niamey) with 1,100 U.S. soldiers. Meanwhile, there was an ongoing demand from the ruling military council for the departure of French forces from Niger, and the Sahel and desert region became free from French influence, allowing American influence to replace it. This comes after a significant waning of Russian influence following the death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the beginning of the decline and disappearance of the Russian special group.
With the absence of Chinese interests in Mali and Burkina Faso and the weakening of its influence in Niger, the United States is poised to dominate that region in the coming years.
France was surprised and betrayed by its allies in the AUKUS agreement at the end of 2021 when Australia canceled a $50 billion deal with France to build submarines and entered into an alliance with the United States and Britain, who would supply it with nuclear submarines for deployment in the Pacific Ocean. France accused the United States and Britain of betrayal, deception, and lies and declared NATO a dying alliance. Similarly, France is facing challenges from its allies in Africa. As Ali ibn Abi Talib said during the arbitration, it is undermined by its own companions.
The United States has been determined to expand its strategic influence in Africa since the establishment of AFRICOM at the beginning of the third millennium. This commitment is evident in the U.S.-Africa Summits, initiated since the first summit in 2014 during the presidency of Barack Obama. The U.S. has increased investments, aid, loans, and engaged in technical, scientific, and technological cooperation with African countries. This pursuit aims to counter Chinese and French influence while thwarting Russia’s efforts to extend its influence in the region.
i History of Islam, Al-Dhahabi, p. 194, Vol. 2, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Lebanon – Beirut, 2005. – Our Translation.
ii arabic.cnn.com, 8-8-2023 – Our Translation.
iii www.skynewsarabia.com, 14-9-2023 – Our Translation.