France heads to East Africa after shrinking influence in West Africa
Events – Agencies
Recent years have witnessed a noticeable shift in French foreign policy towards East Africa, after the decline of its traditional influence in the Sahel region, which reflects its response to the growing challenges in that region, including the rise of new military rulers who declared a break with the former colonizer while opening up to Paris’s competitors, most notably Russia and Turkey.
This deterioration in France’s role in that region was accompanied by its efforts to strengthen its ties with East African countries by engaging in many strategies that include political, economic and military aspects, with the aim of restoring its position and strengthening its presence on the African continent.
In this regard, a paper issued by the French Institute of International Relations indicated that until the 1990s, the West African region and its resources seemed to be within France’s reach, as it was still able, with “500 men, to change the course of history,” as Foreign Minister Louis de Guiringaud put it in 1978. This upheaval in the balances that Paris had built for decades to protect its influence on the African continent prompted French foreign policy makers to reconsider and formulate new strategies governing their relations with Africa, working to compensate for its successive losses and curb the decline of its international weight by giving it a kind of balance by turning to regions far from its traditional spheres of influence (North and West Africa).
