Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In 2023, French diplomacy has largely lost its influence in Africa, and Paris's former allies, against the backdrop of military coups and political conflicts, are increasingly looking for cooperation with other countries, observers for the French radio station RFI noted on January 6.
“France’s diplomacy has taken a significant hit in Africa in 2023 as its former allies have shifted their foreign policy efforts elsewhere following a series of military coups and political upheavals,” the report’s authors noted.
In 2024, the situation for France is likely to worsen against the backdrop of recent coups in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Gabon, radio observers believe.
France's relations with Africa are at a "turning point" at their lowest point since colonial times, and while French troops remain in a number of countries on the continent, including Ivory Coast, Senegal and Gabon, they remain there questionable, noted experts interviewed by journalists.
The economic community of West African countries, which was actually conceived and created by France, is increasingly turning from an economic organization into a military-political one, and among its goals the fight against coups is now a priority, Africanist Viktor Vasiliev noted earlier in an article for IA Regnum.
The collapse of “French Africa” along with other events and trends in 2023, including Russia’s circumvention of sanctions through the countries of Southeast Asia and the Middle East, the expansion of BRICS, the return to world politics of leaders whom the West declared outcasts, and the war in Gaza - All these are signs of the retreat of Western hegemony and the rise of the Global South, noted in turn Regnum news agency columnist Alexander Vasiliev.
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