France and terrorism in Africa: French ambassador responds
Correspondent | Friday January 24, 2020 15:59
Such statements are unfounded and convey a false image of French action in sub-Saharan Africa. The French government has never been involved in financing terrorism or rebel groups in the Central African Republic or the rest of the African continent.
French military presence in Africa is real and is part of a joint commitment to fight international terrorism. France is engaged in military operations in Africa in the five Sahelian countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger) through “Operation Barkhane”, which involves 4,500 French soldiers. Other French soldiers also participate in UN and EU peacekeeping missions in Western Sahara, Liberia, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.
With regard more specifically to the Central African Republic, the UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) until the 15th of November 2020, while at the same time strengthening it, particularly in terms of the support that the Mission provides to the peace process in the country: its main objectives are the protection of civilians and support for the peace process, including the implementation of the Peace Agreement, elections, national reconciliation, social cohesion and transitional justice at the national and local levels.
In the CAR, France is deploying an operational detachment fully integrated into the United Nations Force and are contributing directly to its missions to ensure the long-term stabilisation of the security situation in the CAR and to address the threats posed by certain armed groups against the civilian population and UN personnel.
The objectives of these operations, which fall within the framework of UN mandates, are to prevent the destabilisation of partner and friendly States, with the assistance of many European partners and States in the region; to achieve stability and security to guarantee the development of these countries. These objectives are shared by the countries of the continent and the international community.
The French presence, whose objective is to accompany political stabilization and economic development, has a significant human cost, and France recently lost thirteen of its soldiers engaged against armed jihadist groups in south-eastern Mali.
However, France’s military action in Africa is only the other side of the coin of a broader development cooperation policy, which includes the many projects of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), 50% of whose activity directly concerns the continent in order to meet the challenges of employment and youth, finance African innovation, improve the governance of societies and build sustainable territories and cities.
The main thrusts of France’s strategy for the development of Africa, formulated in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso by President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, are therefore based on the following priorities: increase in official development assistance (€1 billion increase from 2019); priority given to education (tenfold increase in France’s contribution to the Global Partnership for Education); unprecedented support for entrepreneurship and innovation (2.5 billion devoted to supporting SMEs) and placing culture at the heart of the relationship with Africa. In this respect, France will host the 28th Africa-France Summit on Sustainable Cities in Bordeaux in June 2020. June will also be the starting point for the six-month Africa2020 cultural season.
This is the reality of relations between Africa and France, based on real facts and not on false information.
*H.E. Laurence Beau is Ambassador of France in Botswana