The country is no longer a colonial power, but still finds the Dark Continent irresistible.
It’s been decades since France was last engaged in two simultaneous military operations in Africa. With Operation ‘Serval’ in Mali, began in January 2013, and ‘Sangaris’ in Central African Republic (CAR), launched at the beginning of December 2013, Paris has reasserted its presence on the continent in spectacular fashion.
Approximately 2,500 troops are still deployed in Mali a year after that intervention began. Another 1,600 have been sent to the CAR capital of Bangui. French socialist President François Hollande has, however, insisted that these military operations represent a clean break with previous policies. He was trying to lay the ghost of so called ‘Françafrique’, the postcolonial policy whereby Paris maintained some form of supervision over its former African territories by supporting local, often anti-democratic rulers.
During his new year’s press conference at the Élysée Palace, the French President explicitly addressed this issue in his speech, “I want to end French political intervention in Central Africa, where France has set up and overthrown the presidents of these countries. That time is now gone, over! All I want to do is protect the people.”
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The country is no longer a colonial power, but still finds the Dark Continent irresistible.
