[This is very important, and I think this applies even more to the USA in its views of Africa. Firstly, we must give credit to the French, that they have worked the hardest and fought the most in Africa of any Western country. They have 5,100 troops in Africa and the French are doing the heavy lifting. The French have been fighting all across Africa. The French have bigger balls than the useless British. And even America only touches Africa very slightly. I don't think the USA has the interest to come into Africa and to fix things. I think America is very afraid of Africa. Even America's small military forces in Africa are struggling. But the French, it must be said have done the most to try to work with the Blacks. But notice how France is pulling back and waiting to see how its "African Allies" are doing. This is because its not going well and in the past the Blacks have admitted that they are losing their own wars. I wonder if the Western world is not starting to miss the Whites of South Africa, the Boers and the Rhodesians yet, who were quick to dive into any fight? DO YOU MISS THE WHITES OF AFRICA YET? I have watched and assessed these moves by the entire Western World and the UN in Africa and I am convinced it is all doomed to failure. In this case, Muslims are defeating Black nations. And frankly, I don't care what happens. The West preferred to shaft the Whites of Africa and now the West will find that Africa is a bottomless pit. That here, things which Whites in the West are used to, are actually not possible. Yep, here in Africa, your Liberal theories DO NOT WORK! Personally I don't care. I think the Western world needs to realise the value of the few million Whites of Africa and how we kept peace and law and order on this insane continent AND WE MADE IT LOOK EASY! One day, the West will miss us. I look forward to that day. I believe we have a value here in Africa, and that is especially true of the Boers. This continent is filled with unbelievable wealth … but maintaining control here is a nightmare. Jan]

France to focus on Isis and will leave other conflicts to African governments

Victor Mallet in Paris and Neil Munshi in Lagos FEBRUARY 1 2021

Emmanuel Macron has signalled he intends to reduce within months the 5,100-strong French military force fighting jihadis in the Sahel states of sub-Saharan Africa after years of military operations.

The French president said at the Elysée Palace that he would wait a couple of months after the mid-February summit between France and regional governments in the Chadian capital N’Djamena to see results from France’s African allies in fighting terrorism and helping to restore order in their own countries.

“If not, I will in any case be forced to pivot our French contingent,” he said on Friday. “Because if you want to make a useful impact, you have to think that if there are still terrorist groups after seven years, that means they are embedded and your problem is not simply one of security. It’s a political, ethnic and development problem. So at that point, I will adjust our contingent.”

The French have justified their presence as a way of helping to prevent Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe. But with an eye on his re-election chances next year amid growing French disenchantment with the toll taken by the country’s Operation Barkhane, Mr Macron has repeatedly expressed frustration with the ambivalent attitude towards Paris of some Sahelian governments.

Like the Americans in Afghanistan after 2001, the French have struggled to suppress militant Islamist groups following initial military success. French forces defeated an Islamist offensive that captured northern Mali in 2013, but conflicts have since continued to spread across a region where political and military leaders are frequently accused of corruption and incompetence. Central Mali has become the epicentre of violence, with ethnic militias and jihadist groups exploiting a lack of governance.

“Either you intervene very quickly and fix the problem in six months, or you get bogged down,” said Serge Michailof, a development expert and researcher with Iris, the French Institute of International and Strategic Relations. “There are too many problems for a foreign intervention force not to become an occupation force.”

France boosted its forces in the Sahel by 600 soldiers only a year ago and has claimed recent successes in its operations against Islamic State of the Great Sahara, the local Isis affiliate, in the “tri-border” region of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Mr Macron said France would now focus on confronting Isis and he suggested other conflicts would be left to the governments of the region — those of Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad whose leaders are due to meet in N’Djamena in two weeks at the so called G5 summit.

“Our enemy can’t be every group that is more or less jihadist,” Mr Macron said. “It’s Islamic State of the Great Sahara.”

Why Macron’s attempt to reset French ties to Africa has hit trouble

While France has boasted of killing some key jihadi leaders, the UN estimates that over 2m people have been internally displaced in the region and jihadist attacks have increased fivefold since 2016, according to the International Crisis Group. The violence has crippled Burkina Faso, once a model of regional stability, where large swaths of the country are now ungoverned. The region is now routinely subject to militant attacks like one in Niger last month that killed more than 100 people.

Amid rising anti-French sentiment in the region, there have been public demonstrations against what critics argue is a neocolonial campaign. The French presence was complicated further last month by an air strike in central Mali which locals have said killed 19 members of a wedding party. France and Mali’s government have both insisted that the January 3 strike killed roughly 30 terrorists.

The international Sahel stabilisation strategy, led by France, is “foundering” in part because it overly relies on a military response, according to an ICG report released on Monday. There “is no convincing success story in the Sahel, but rather a steady deepening and expansion of its conflicts,” according to the report. “Many of France’s partners, and even some within the French system itself, are increasingly sceptical about a stabilisation strategy that has burnt through vast resources with meagre results.”

Most of the armies in the Sahel are underequipped and underfunded, and many analysts — and senior politicians — warn that a French withdrawal could cause the security situation to deteriorate further.

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/d5e7c04a-1f10-4fcd-a7f1-9af7faedb8a6