The African region of Sahel is experiencing a wave of coups d'etat since 2020-- Mali had two coups, then Guinea, and then Burkina Faso. The latest to taste a coup is the government of Nigerien president Mohamed Bazoum-- it thought the putschists were few and they were still backed by the armed forces, but it ended in a divided system, with the security forces facing a defiant administration. Malian and Burkinabé forces cite the inability of their governments to assist them in the region's Islamist insurgency, and their Nigerien counterparts voice the same excuse.
France is the leading force in the anti-terror Operation Barkhane, in which the Sahelian countries participate. The French government has an uneasy relationship not only with Islamists but also with Islam, with an interpretation of the Laïcité (French secularism) evolving into state atheism (read more), an increasing acceptance of anti-migrant and Islamophobic sentiment (read more), and a diplomatic rift with conservative Muslim nations like Iran, Pakistan and Turkey (the latter being already in a tension with France over the Mediterranean and Armenia in 2020). The nation has been upholding this concept and the kind of democracy it has, which is also affected by this Laïcité; this removes one point of France from being credible in upholding human rights-- to be particular, religious freedom, because secularism French-style is not religious freedom at all.
Democracy has also become a value the French state is protecting, or is it? For instance, how is democracy upheld in Chad, whose leader Mahamat Déby is backed by the European nation? Stability is what France aims to maintain, but how can the region and the society be stable if their rights are not upheld? In October last year, after a dialogue between his junta and rebel groups which ended in his favour, his announcement of remaining in power was met with protests that were brutally cracked down; one was killed in front of the United States embassy, and Déby's detractors singled France out, sparing the USA and EU for the condemnation of his atrocity, unlike their neighbours who condemn the West as a whole.
Consider Benin under Patrice Talon, who has become a dictator as well (read more) after barring opposition parties from running in the 2019 parliamentary elections (although they were later allowed this year), and two activists (professor Joël Aïvo and ex-minister Reckya Madougou) were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 2021 for trumped-up charges. Talon also has French support, although to decrease his authoritarian reputation, he freed 30 political prisoners in June 2022, not including Aïvo nor Madougou. French president Emmanuel Macron visited him twice-- last year and in March 2023.
Rwanda is another dictatorship aided by France; Macron went to the East African country in May 2021 to extend his apologies for his country's role in enabling Hutu Power extremists to conduct a genocide in 1994, but, like in Benin, he was mum on president Paul Kagame's crimes; the most recent ones include the assassination of exiled opposition figure Seif Bamporiki in February 2021, which was also the fate of other detractors of Kagame who fled the country, and the arrest and sentencing of hotel manager-turned-activist Paul Rusesabagina (famed for providing refuge for Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the Genocide), whose flight was shifted to Rwanda and the conviction based on trumped-up terrorism charges (he was later freed last March after USA intervention). Macron's silence prompted criticism from the Rwandan opposition.
The French government has been supportive towards Ukraine in its fight against Putinist invaders, but unlike the United Kingdom and the United States, Macron's pragmatism is not welcome in Ukraine; Ukrainian officials do not entertain his policy of compromise after having been hardly hit by Russian bombardments and other atrocities. How can he have sincerity in upholding democracy, dignity and justice if he cannot do it at home? During the pension reform readings in Parliament, he invoked Article 49.3 of the country's Constitution to bypass legislative vote. He refused to hear the protesters rejecting the reforms. Then came riots after an overspeeding Arab youth was shot by police; systemic racism is rampant in the country, and the government's laïcist fundamentalism does nothing but to stoke fear for migrants and Islam. Amidst these riots, the French president threatened to curb social media.
When Sahel is hit by a series of coups, France is quick to condemn the events, although in fairness it deserted coup victim Alpha Condé in 2020, less than a year before the 2021 putsch, due to disrespect to popular will (why did it fail to apply it to Benin?). The nation treats the series as a trend of democratic backsliding in the region. Critics of France cite French imperialism, failures to address the Islamist insurgency, and corruption and incompetence of the officials the European country is backing, but if they see more reasons I mentioned, they will take the president's speeches on democracy and stability less seriously, because the hypocrisy is much.
No wonder why we see Russian flags and mentions of "Putin" and "Wagner" among coup supporters; "death to France, down with ECOWAS, Macron get out, long live Russia, long live Putin", the banners say. They are resorting from one imperialist to another, having yet to discover the wrath of Russian militias like those in Sudan, Central African Republic and Mali. When Sahelians find these out and get killed by Wagner, I could say the French government has responsibility for this.
Article posted on 01 August 2023, 23:00 (UTC +08:00).
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