In April, only a few months after the last French troops had left Niger, the West African country suspended a military agreement with the United States, essentially forcing US troops out of the country. The US had nine military bases in Niger, one of the largest foreign military presences on the continent. Almost a year on from the August 2023 coup, Niger is still fighting off imperialist forces, one after the other. It has strengthened its alliance with Mali and Burkina Faso, which underwent military coups in 2021 and 2023 respectively against imperialism and its regional puppet, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
France has historic links to West Africa through colonialism. Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, as well as Gabon and Guinea, which have also experienced coups in recent years, are all former French colonies. That exploitative relationship persisted, with African leaders largely selling out to their former colonial masters, until this current wave of coups which have all declared French imperialism an enemy. Specifically, France has had troops stationed in the Sahel for ‘counter terrorism’ purposes – part of Operation Barkhane, which has completely failed in its stated aim of combating Islamic ‘extremists’. West Africans have now said they have had enough of imperialism: first out with the French, and now out with the Yankees.
Of course, the imperialists did not leave quietly. Last summer, the threat of an invasion from ECOWAS encouraged by France, under the guise of ‘restoring democracy’, seemed imminent. In response, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso established the Alliance of Sahelian States (ASS) in September 2023. Shared security concerns regarding jihadist groups in the region have also contributed to the decision for the three West African countries to ensure their collective security domestically and regionally. In an address to the UN General Assembly, Burkina Faso’s Minister of State, Bassolma Bazie, called on all Africans to mobilise ‘in brotherhood and solidarity in order to prevent the imperialists from setting fire to Niger like the case of Libya’. The Sahelian states have not forgotten the 2011 imperialist invasion of Libya, which unleashed Islamist terrorism into the Sahel region. The setting up of the ASS came after France began the withdrawal of its troops from Niger in early September 2023, with the last units leaving the country in December. It also follows the withdrawal from the G5 Sahel of Burkina Faso and Niger, following Mali’s departure in May 2022.
The G5 Sahel is a military alliance created in 2014, originally composed of Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. In 2017, a counterinsurgency force backed by France was included. As the military alliance has failed completely to halt the threat of insurgent groups, and relations with France have deteriorated, the new military governments have decided to take their collective security into their own sovereign hands.
In January 2024, the Sahelian States announced their departure from ECOWAS. ECOWAS is an agent of imperialism in West Africa, and a social club for the corrupt and bourgeois African political class. Time and time again it has deployed the methods used by imperialists to try and bend the coup governments to their will. The illegal sanctions imposed by ECOWAS after the coups were an attempt to starve and squeeze populations already faced with pervasive poverty and violence. Populations are punished for their mass support of leaders who they feel will finally make a change and permanently cut off parasitic French imperialism.
In late February, ECOWAS lifted the majority of sanctions imposed on Niger, supposedly on ‘humanitarian grounds’. In reality, it is clear that losing half the landmass that was previously under the organisation’s control – a landmass that includes mineral and oil-rich regions – was a significant blow. The sanctions imposed on Niger had included closing off of borders with Benin and Nigeria – essential trade routes as Niger is land-locked – which caused massive hikes in the prices of food and shortages of medicine. Another significant measure that has now been lifted is the freezing of Niger’s assets in the West African bloc’s central bank, the BCEAO. This illegal seizure had left Niger unable to finance its budget or service its debts. Clearly the goal was, as US diplomats put it in relation to the US blockade of socialist Cuba, ‘to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government’. Soon after the lifting of sanctions on Niger, ECOWAS announced similar measures for Mali and Guinea.
The existence of the common colonial currency, the CFA Franc, made possible the punitive seizing of assets by ECOWAS. This currency is yet another way French imperialism controls the economies of its former colonies (see ‘French imperialism tightens its grip on Africa’, FRFI 274, February/March 2020). After leaving ECOWAS, the Sahelian states are also considering leaving the CFA Franc zone, which would further weaken the West African trade bloc.
A concern for western imperialists is that the exit of French and US troops will create a power vacuum in West Africa, which Russia will fill. On a number of demonstrations across the Sahel, protesters have been seen waving Russian flags. The mercenary Wagner Group, a proxy for the Russian military, has a growing presence in West Africa. Its mission has mostly been to protect the military governments against internal security threats and to provide weapons.
A core focus of the alliance between the Sahelian states is to establish economic and political sovereignty. The Sahel is a mineral-rich region, whose mines are still largely operated by foreign multinationals. Despite extensive uranium resources in Niger for example, the vast majority of Nigeriens do not have access to electricity. Joint energy projects and regional civil nuclear power initiatives are among the projects these states are exploring. These long-term projects are crucial to securing independence and development for the Sahel. The longevity of the coup governments will depend ultimately not on security matters, but on their ability to guarantee better lives for their people.
Imperialism out of Africa!
Hands off the Sahel!
Sarah Guebre-Egziabher
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 300 June/July 2024
