“Vladimir PutinHe came to fight Africa in the 1950s, 1960s and 70s, “says Franklin Nyamsi’s influencer Camer at their hundreds of thousands of followers in a video shared on multiple platforms”. Participated in the fight against western imperialism. I hope you know it, “he said. However, There is no evidence That Russian President visited Africa in that period, much less to fight against colonial powers. Born in 1950, Putin was also a child for most of that time.
However, these facts did not prevent the disinformationIt extends like gunpowder, especially in the old French colonies around Sahelan eco -soul and bigenographic area of the north of the African continent that extends, from west to east, It extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red SeaCrossing the entire continent in which the Kremlin used increasingly insidious methods to play with anti -colonial feelings in order to pursue their interests.
The director of the research of the for Africa Center of the United States Department of Defense, Joseph Siegy, He claims that Moscow’s approach is multipleand that the media play an essential role. Speaking with Washington “Euronews”, Siegle explained that “in environments where there is no consolidated set Media trust occur An explosion of unregulated or filtered social media “, which according to him is particularly frequent in Sahel.
According to the United Nations, the Sahel region includes 10 countries in central and western Africa, with 400 million inhabitants. Of these 10, eight were colonized by FranceAnd almost everyone did not get independence until the 1960s. The French are widespread in all of them, which means that the scope and messages of the commentators and influential French -speaking often transfer the boundaries between the countries of the region that France imposed in previous centuries.
However, Colonialism is no longer a hot topicAnd Siegy claims that colonial bequests have vanished largely from political life. “I would like to remind people that colonialism ended 60 years ago … It was not part of the recent electoral discourse“He said. In any case, for many of the regimes of these countries, Europe was still the favorite partner while advanced in their sovereign trajectories, according to Seigle.
“When there were democratically inclined governments, although weak … There were good relations with Europe“, He explained. These relationships were strong, especially with France itself, which maintained deep political and commercial ties disproportionate with their old colonies in Africa, under a somewhat nebulae policy known as” Françafrique “.
He also parked thousands of troops through Multiple base in the Sahel. This number multiplied in 2013, when France and other European countries sent reinforcements to fight a series of extremist insurrections in the region. Seigle claims that it was largely Positive, which has only been altered recently by a series of Etats coupes that have installed Pro-West Giunti throughout the region.
Things fall apart
However, for Delphine Djirabe, an exceptional lawyer and activist Chadiana of human rights, Russia’s rise is not that simpleSince he believes that he is intrinsically linked to the deep anger of the region towards France and the historical support of Paris to the governments which, in their opinion, were nothing democratic.
In one Accident conversation Telefónica with “Euronews” from the capital, Yamena, where, according to Djirabe, food cuts and the mobile network are increasingly frequent, LThe defender explained that “colonization could have changed in the formBut we continued under the yoke of France to date practically. “” We heard it in a very bitter way. “
Djirabe said it Chad Maintains a French legal code, like most other French -speaking countries in the region, at least in some way, but These codes are not respected in the region or from Paris. “France always presents itself as the country of human rights”, has complained, “but when extrajudicial executions are common, when the populations are subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading care … France does not face“
For example, he cites the speech of the French president, Emmanuel MacronAt the funeral of the former Chadian president Idris Deby in 2021, in which he referred to the deceased authoritarian leader as a “courageous friend” before praising his son and political heir of Deby, Mahamat, for having brought “stability”. HoweverIn less than a year, Relations with the Chad and with the whole region have deteriorated. France withdrew its 1,000 Mali troops in August 2022 and, at the end of 2023, Burkina Faso and Niger also forced the departure of the French military presence.
In a dramatic diplomatic controversy that exploded at the end of 2024, Macron said the region had never “grateful” France The deployment of the troops there. Deby, younger, asked that France also retired from Chad and Françafrique threw it out of the blanket. At the same time, the Kremlin quickly emerged from the shadows of the countryside on social networks and was introduced by the doors of several presidential buildings such as The new world power Best friend of the city.
From Russia with love?
In a video published last month, the Swiss Internet personality Nathalie Yamb shared a CLIP of the former former Frenchman In Mali Nicolas Normand stating that the Region “needs absolutely associations”, while warning it “Russia does not provide any helpExcept for military aid to … form a Praetorian guard for meetings. “
While he says, a man appears in the lower right corner of Yamb’s video, making a Pinocchio nose action. Yamb therefore appears on the screen to criticize the comments and say that the “urban myth” on Russia would bury. However, Siegle claims that this is precisely what Moscow does, which has literally filled with its muscle the body of the presidential guard of Multiple leaders of Saheliani de facto.
Until recently, these military sides were largely trained by private military companies (PMC) Supported by the Kremlin, under the umbrella of the sad famous group of Wagner mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Natalie Sabanadze, a former -Abassador of Georgia at the EU, told “Euronews” that this gave Russia a “plausible denial”, What was important when Moscow He was still trying to win the international diplomatic favor.
ADVERTISINGHowever, after Russia He will launch his large scale of Ukraine In 2022, much of this statement was dissipated. So when Pigozhin directed Wagner’s mercenaries in a revolt a year later in Ukraine, and later he died in a plane crash, which many international observers attribute to the Kremlin, SAbanadze states that Russia has eliminated little autonomy that private military companies had in the Sahel.
Although in some Sahelian companies there were public samples of pain for the death of Prigozhin, This has never translated into a wider interrogation of relations with Moscow.
The popularity of Moscow, unquestionable
Yamb has been widely discredited as Puppet of the Kremlin which served as a “independent observer” of Russia during the false elections held in the occupied areas of Ukraine in 2022. However, she and others, such as Franklin Nyamsi, together with those who support them in the Kremlin, They actually used feelings Anti -EuropeanosTo increase the Moscow agenda, which includes the control of profitable natural resources in different mines evaluated in billions.
Moreover, Seigle explains that it adapts to a wider narrative of “Russia that has many partners and allies and Europe and the loser influence of the West”, both factors were exacerbated only by The great invasion of scarce Ukraine from Russia and subsequent consequences.
ADVERTISINGSabanadze declared “Euronews” who, coming from an ancient satellite state of the USSR, “one of my main works was somehow convinced the Europeans that we knew how to deal with Russia”. However, Sabanadze, who is now a senior member of Chatham House, a “think tank” focused on Russian global influenceRemember the comments he received from some in Brussels, which he considers emblematic of the Arrogance of Europe regarding threats Russian
“They said, ‘You are paranoid. You have your historical background. You can’t overcome it. ” Moscow not only expels French forces And from the EU there, but they also rooted.
“The Russians are very popular in many of these places. They are not seen as horrible mercenaries who come to exploit resources, kill people and who participated in horrible massacres,” Sabanadze said. Both Siegy and Djirabe doubt in exchange for Moscow’s loyalty.
“I think it is more than a transaction,” said Seigle. “Russian forces are not there to fight jihadistsBut to protect the regime and several mineral farms. “Sabanadze agreed.” They like theirs Operations are cheap And they are particularly useful, “he added.
ADVERTISINGWe never face the background problem
However, the signs of discontent with the Russians are already glimpsed. At the beginning of April, they exploded Anti -Russe protests In the nearby Central African Republic, which Siegle described as a “example” of the influence of Moscow in Africa, Due to the thousands of Russian soldiers who are there.
Although Russian losses in their current war in Ukraine e The fall of his ally Bashar al-Assad In Syria they pushed Moscow paradoxically to try to expand their global scope, they also provided vulnerability that could Allow Europe to participate in the competition again. However, both Siegle and Djirabe warned against a short -term approach that would simply bring to the same regimes that went to the Kremlin looking for help.
“Of course, this has a certain short -term attraction,” admits Siegy. “It is better to have the joints of the jihadists In power, but does not face any of the sources of instability below in these countries. “That is, the lack of financial stability and support for civil society groups.” We never face the underlying problem, “Djirabe agrees, which asks for less intervention by all parties.
“It is not necessary to come and dominate. If they left us car -gestire, we would be able to choose leaders and punish them when necessary. The mechanism is there. “When the interview ended and the connection failed again, Djirabe reflected decades on his race and how his country and those around him had changed or not.
ADVERTISING“For more than 50 years, weapons have spoken for us under the logic that” if we have weapons, we submit to the populations, we irrid us in the villages, we kill “. Despite this, it maintains hope.”We will not continue to use the language of weapons indefinitely“He exclaimed.” We must assemble the value. We will continue to fight, support our populations and get higher, because we cannot replace one colonizer with another. “
