There are talks now going on in media circles of whether France is behind the recent coups that have plagued French West Africa. Some are even suggesting that this signals a return to coups in Africa as was in the past. The question that needs to be asked is are these coups happening in isolation or there is someone behind them?
A closer look at the events unfolding in many of these former French colonies or should we rather say, still French colonies, seem to be pointing at France as being behind these military take overs that have happened in that part of the world.
Starting from Mali, Chad, Sudan, Guinea, and now Burkina Faso, the trend seems similar. First, all the officers who have led these coups with the exception of Sudan (which is an appendage of certain Gulf countries and is led by greedy soldiers), are French trained legionnaires and soldiers and that cannot be a coincident in all these countries. Second, why is this phenomenon mostly happening in French former territories?
From Colonel Assimi Goita, Colonel Mamady Doumbuya and now lieutenant colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, all are graduates from French Military academies.
The modus operandi of these coups is pretty much the same wherever it has happened, and it points to France as being the architect behind. France has never left its former colonies to exercise total independence even after having given them the right to exercise independence, instead, it tied those countries to a complicated regime of political and economic controls which have been an albatross on these countries long after the so-called independence.
This also explains why we have the French cabal in charge at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa. These men keep on making very unpopular decisions on behalf of the people of Africa without consulting them. A good example is that of allowing Zionist/Apartheid Israel to observer status at the AU.
On Monday, after a chaotic weekend of protests and a mutiny, soldiers in Burkina Faso announced on Monday evening they had taken over the country and arrested the President Roch Marc Christian Kabore. The operation was carried out under the orders of lieutenant colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, previously in charge of anti-terror operations in the east of the country.
The army statement read out on RTB national television on Monday, was issued in the name of a group previously unheard of, notably the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration, or MPSR.
According to the statement, written by MPSR president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, Kaboré has failed to unite the nation and to deal effectively with the security crisis which “threatens the very foundations of our nation”.
He said his movement would re-establish “constitutional order” within a “reasonable time”.
At the weekend, mutinying soldiers made several demands, including: the removal of the army’s chief of staff and the head of the intelligence service, more troops to be deployed to the front line; and better conditions for the wounded and soldiers’ families.
According to French sources, Damiba is listed as having graduated from a Paris military school in 2017. He also completed studies in criminal science at the Arts et Métiers school (CNAM) and received a certificate in management, command, and strategy.
The above statement sounds familiar with what has happened in all the other former French colonies that have experienced coups of late.
These military leaders seem to be accusing their governments of things that they themselves are mandated to do in the first place. Much of the hype seems to centre around the issue of strategies to fight the so-called Islamist rebels in their territories. As military leaders, they should be in the forefront of coming up with strategies to win these wars against the rebels, yet instead of doing that, they turn on their leaders.
In all this, one sees the hidden French hand as being behind these manoeuvres for obvious reasons. France has been stealing the resources from its former colonies all along. They never stopped exploiting their former colonies to this day. Today, they are using the soldiers trained in France to do the job on their behalf. Collectively, France collects more than $500 billion from its former colonies through dubious means. Its like asking the former colonies to pay loyalties to France for having colonised them, which is a sad development indeed.
We call upon the AU to investigate these developments and keep France away from its backyard. Africa must mature and be allowed to make its own decisions and be independent. Please tell off these blood suckers to leave Africa alone. When are they going to stop exploiting us? Most of these imperialist countries do not have any more resources in their territories, hence coming up with such plans so that they continue to suck our wealth why we remain poor.
By:
Dr. Mustafa Mheta
Senior researcher/Head of Africa Desk
Media Review Network
South Africa
Johannesburg
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