The Sahel region witnessed the dominance of the West for quite a long time. In 2014, France stationed its soldiers under Operation Barkhane to eliminate the various Islamist and rebel organizations in the Sahel region. The French forces’ purpose was to establish peace, however, it failed to do so as the terror groups instead of getting uprooted got more brazen and emboldened.
There is also evidence which proves that French conspired with Jihadist groups to create instability in Sahel in order to keep its troops deployed in the region. This was done to entangle the region in a grave crisis so that it always had to rely on France for military and economic assistance.
Refusal to own its mistakes
France’s actions in West Africa were outrageous and disgraceful. As in January, 2021, one of its airstrikes hit a wedding ceremony being held in Mali which led to the demise of nineteen innocent people. Instead of acknowledging its blunder, the West manipulated the facts of this incident and tried to absolve itself of the guilt.
Similarly, Giorgia Meloni said during an interview that the French government, which prints the currencies of several African nations, exploits Burkina Faso and other African nations in exchange of currency facilitation provided to them.
This is a classical Western move where it entertains African countries for exploiting them and then turns a blind eye on the problems of the African nations.
Read more: TFI Global’s prediction comes true within 24 hours: Burkina Faso is now a Russian ally
Blame game of the West
The West becomes proactive when it comes to the blaming of its sins on others. This time Macron represented that quality of the West when he blamed Russia of using “predatory” influence in Africa. Make no mistake, Macron is doing nothing but shifting the blame of France’s failures on Russia. The failure of France to address the problems of the people living in Sahel countries led to the discontentment towards France which Russia encashed. Macron’s ignorance towards insurgency in Sahel proved fatal for France and he is ashamed of accepting the defeat.
Macron and his allies are seeing that Moscow is increasing its influence in West Africa which is a major blow to their foothold over the continent. In fact, a US official, Victoria Nuland, told the media that she was confident that Burkina Faso will not invite mercenary group Wagner into its territory. However, President Ibrahim Traore eventually did invite Wagner but unofficially, which led the White House to exclude the country from its trade agreement with Africa.
There were also several protests by locals in which pro-Russia slogans were raised and anti-West sentiments were on full display. The founder of Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is close to the Kremlin, also commended Traore as “a truly courageous son of the motherland.”
The final nail in the coffin of French influence in Sahel came when Macron was forced to announce the end of Operation Barkhane and its allies Britain and Ivory Coast decided to withdraw their troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.
West’s Fall is inevitable
They also cannot bear to look at their proxies getting destroyed by Wagner forces. Recently, Nusrat-al-Islam, which is affiliated to the Al-Qaeda and is infamous for its brutalities in Mali, is so terrified by Moscow that it has started begging for mercy. It is also falsely accusing Wagner of human rights abuses. One can imagine the blow to the terrorist organization when that terror organization starts talking about human rights.
Read more: Al-Qaeda’s Mali arm is terrified as Wagner group looks all set to eradicate it
Similarly, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, another radical group involved in an insurrection in 2012 in Sahel, which received support from the West, is suffering defeat. Worried about its influence, France is scrambling to save its sinking ship in Africa by giving helicopters to Niger, which also got military equipment from Washington. But none of this will work as the people and governments have made up their minds to liberate themselves from devil incarnates disguised as allies.
