Written by Michael Thervil
Photo by Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS
The mass rejection of France's presence in Africa seems to be gaining more steam. Cote d'ivoire also known as the Ivory Coast is the latest African country that made moves to cut ties with the French military in the region. This rejection of French troops comes after the countries that make up the Sahel region of Africa (Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger, and Chad), demanded that the French military leave their countries last year. The number one reason for the ousting of the French military presence in Cote d'ivoire is because of the French exploiting the vast amounts of natural resources, such as uranium, within these African countries.
If you ask French diplomats and military authorities why they were operating in Cote d'ivoire for so long, they will cite that they were there to fight both terrorism, rebels, and other resistance groups that have been causing havoc and engaging in humanitarian crimes against the people of Cote d'ivoire. However, if you observe the anti-French sentiment of the people of Cote d'ivoire, they are making the claim that the French government through the use of its military has been engaging in the exploitation of the Cote d'ivoire government, its people and its natural resources. When it comes to the natural resources of Côte d'Ivoire, it boasts a vast amount of cocoa, gold, diamonds, nickel, and coltan. On top of that, Côte d'Ivoire also hosts a huge amount of offshore petroleum reserves.
Other natural resources that Côte d'Ivoire happens to be rich in are minerals such as manganese, silver, iron ore, bauxite, cobalt, copper, and tantalum. The position of the Cote d'ivoirian government is that it doesn’t need the French as a colonial power anymore to protect itself from the terrorist, rebels, and resistance groups that operate within its borders. The President of Côte d'Ivoire Alassane Ouattara, made the following statement during his end of the year address:
“We can be proud of our army, whose modernization is now effective. It is in this context that we have decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces.”
With President Alassane Ouattara boasting that Côte d'Ivoire has successfully updated its military to the point that it doesn’t require the assistance of the French military, people seem to be wondering how long can/will the Côte d’ivoire military stand up to the terrorist, general crime, and extremism both internal and external to its borders. There is a sizable amount of people within Côte d’Ivoire that feel as if President Alassane Ouattara is only playing a shell game in which he claims that he is kicking out the French to increase his points in the polls. This is something to think about.
Shell game or not, with France being expelled from 70% of the African countries it once colonized and now Côte d'ivoire; Our prediction at VEDA Communications is that like all African countries that have ousted the French military, Côte d'Ivoire will most like turn to not only Russia for their military needs, but they will also turn to China for their infrastructure needs as well.
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