The Brief - The EU’s Françafrique crisis

26/09/23	View in Browser

The EU’s Françafrique crisis

By Benjamin Fox | @benfox83

French President Emmanuel Macron bowed to the inevitable on Sunday (24 September), announcing the immediate recall of France’s diplomatic team in Niger. The remaining 1,500 French troops there will return home before the end of 2023.

It is hard to see that Macron had much choice. Since being declared persona non grata in August, Ambassador Sylvain Itte had effectively been under house arrest in the French embassy in Niamey, relying on military food rations.

This isn’t necessarily the end of Françafrique – the phrase coined in the 1950s to describe France’s enduring influence in its former African colonies – but it is an embarrassing diplomatic reverse.

More importantly, it leaves the European Union scrambling to maintain any influence in the Sahel region, where Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has become a ubiquitous presence.

Macron and the European Union continue to state that they do not recognise the junta in Niger and that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum is still the country’s legitimate head of government.

That message was repeated last week after the EU’s ambassador in Niamey, Portuguese diplomat Salvador Pinto da Franca, was summoned for his first meeting with the junta-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine.

That may be so, but in reality, the EU does not have many obvious options.

Photo of the day

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (C) and French President Emmanuel Macron (R) walk outside Montecitorio Palace on their way to Chigi Palace on the day of the state funeral of former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, in Rome, Italy, 26 September 2023. Italy on 26 September mourns Giorgio Napolitano, the nation's first two-time president who died aged 98 in Rome on 22 September, with a non-religious State funeral held at Montecitorio Palace, the seat of the lower house of parliament. EPA-EFE/ANGELO CARCONI

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