Unless former colonial powers are held accountable for their past injustices, they are likely to find new ways to perform the same old looting and coercion
7 Jan, 2025 from Home/ Banned by Mustafa Fetouri, via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-FrC Telegram t.me/thefreeonline

FILE PHOTO. © Getty Images/yoh4nn
Good news is coming from West Africa: last November landlocked Chad announced an immediate end to all security and defense ties with former colonial ruler France. The surprise announcement came just hours after the French foreign minister met Chadian President Mahamat Déby.

READ MORE: France is losing the last vestiges of its grip on Africa
With this decision, Chad joins a growing list of former French colonies rejecting Paris’ influence and kicking out its troops. OnDecember 26 France handed over the first of its military bases to the Chadian army in Faya-Largeau. Paris will also evacuate troops from two more bases: in the capital N’Djamena and in the eastern city of Abeche.
In a pointed statement, Chadian Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah declared, “France must henceforth consider that Chad has grown up” and is a “sovereign state.” This rebuke reflects a broader wave across Africa, especially in the Sahel, where countries like Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have already cast off French influence.
France’s role in the Libyan tragedy
The last decade saw French domination of former African colonies waning. A new generation of African leaders began to question their countries’ unequal ties to France, with Paris overexploiting their natural resources, leaving them to poverty and corrupt regimes Paris sustains with little tolerance for dissent.

Libya, another African country, is a good example of French intolerance of any challenges to their hegemony. Under the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya played a leading role in creating the African Union, pushed for a unified African military and more continental economic integration. Paris believed that Gaddafi’s aspirations, given his continental popularity and Libya’s vast financial resources, were a threat to its influence across Africa.

Libya is still in chaos in 2025 and the jihadi militia wars caused by his killing still spread across Africa
Continue reading “Shattering the bonds: Will 2025 be the year of freedom for former colonies?”






