crisis, devastating wars, terrorism, the israeli lobby, crackdown, diplomacy, france forced to leave niger, make sure to join the show through facebook, twitter, only on press tv.

france has announced that it would begin withdrawing its troops from niger this swing after having a fallout with the military that took over power. does this mean that this would be the end of france's involvement in niger, a former colony? what about other countries that were former colonies of france? well in this edition of the spotlight we look at those two issues and look at how niger along with other african countries have gravitated more towards countries like russia and china rather than western ones like france or even the us. first let me into. afrikan team member black alliance for peace joins us from atlanta. also joining us is fidel amasu was an international relations and security analyst who joined us from akrack. welcome to you both. i'll first start with you. tunda usa, i'm hoping i'm pronouncing that correctly. looking at the announcement that france has uh. made, which

has been in the works for for a little bit of time here, even though they resisted it, but uh, they announced that they're going to begin withdrawing his troops from niger. uh, the key word there of course being uh, begin, we don't know whether it's going to be extended, but it's a start, but overall if it happens, does that mean that france's engagement with niger is over? yes, well, we know that france has around 1,500 troops in niger, as well as uh multiple military bases uh bases that are used right by france uh to control land, resources and labor within niger right, and you know part of that is you know the the uh, i think more most popular example right, the iranian from niger, which powers electricity in france, yet less than 18% of nigerian people have less have access to electricity right, so i think you know the the removal of um, troops from the country uh

uh speaks to one aspect of this effort to remove french influence, french control, which is um part of a broader system of neocolonialism right, which is kind of like the survival of uh the colonial system, the despite you know the political independence um of a country like niger and other formally colonized countries, um, but it's not just these troops, right? there's uh the continued economic domination, there's the persistence of the friends say. right, which is the uh currency controlled by france that niger and other uh countries uh in in west africa in the sahel use, so i think this is part of a longer and a broader struggle, um, and it's not just france that is is part of this effort uh uh to to to you know, um, you know, regain sovereignty and control of their land and resources, there other countries like the us and other nato countries that need to be removed, so this is part of a broader broder effort. all right, uh, fidel, i guess are talked. and touched a number of issues which

we're going to get into, hopefully all of them if we can, but let's talk about the security situation that warranted french troops to be there in the first place, okay? um, and i'd like to actually uh refer to a quote from a citizen of niger, they can't tell us that the french army was successful, i don't understand how they can say that they are here to help people fight terrorism, and every year the situation got worse, so the the french didn't help, they didn't help with the security. situation, they were not able to defeat the terrorists, now either they didn't want to do that because they had ulterior motives such as staying longer in niger, or there's another story behind it, i'm not too sure, maybe they're just going to handle it, but what do you make of the explanation that not only in niger, but also other countries like mali and burkinya faso, french were asked to leave because they couldn't in part handle fighting the uh terrorists that that were stationed in the sahal region. all right, thank you very much

for this opportunity. firstly, the first time france had a more uh aggravated or more pronounced security or military presence. in the sahil was in 2011-2012, that was when a mini islamic state was created in northern mali, so what we call the operation savil was initiated by france. later on, the sahel states formed the jan 5 sahel, a military alliance that was supposed to defeat uh the terrorists and so it meant that these countries themselves with their national armies came together to defeat the terrorists. but then frank france was leading what we call the operation bakin, that's the second operation after operation seval, so with that operation, all these countries joined hands with france in fighting against terrorism, now we with france and its formal

colonies, as i have always said, the arrangements after post the post colonial arrangement was not too favorable for the colonies in west africa and beyond, and so france has a lot of... influence, but in respect of the security, after operation bakin was formed, the control or the fight against terrorism did not really fair too well for the people, and terrorists like the jnim and isis affiliates were still more uh potent and were attacking international forces and malians, burkinabes, nijerans and chadians and and so on and so forth, so um basically the... french military endeavor in the region was not as successful as it was expected to be, even though it had initially gained some successes, however after um there was a military cool in mali, mali decided to expell french forces in exchange and then

went in for wagna, now in burkina faso, burkina faso followed suit, and in niger, you see the people, they see france as a new colonial power and... the regimes or the military is able to whip up such sentiments to their own advantage in a way, and so if the people do not want france, then so be it, the country belongs to them and if they don't want it, that is it, however, after the military took over in mali and burkina faso, the security situation has not got any better, it has even gotten worse, so i think that even in as much as france is being ejected, the militaries should pay attention to their domestic security, because things are getting. really, really bad. let me ask you something, uh, do you in your estimate, how many terrors do you think exist in the sahel region if you don't mind, if you have information on that, roughly? yes, so if we are talking about how many terrorists in terms of individual numbers, it is very difficult to get because their recruitment is

on daily basis, they recruit on daily basis, they have sometimes ethnicize this extremism, guess, are we looking a thousand, 5,00, thousand, how many do you think it is, it is in the tens of thousands, it is in the tens, not in the 5,00 or tens of thousands, because even al-qaeda has more than five groups that are alive eight in the sahel, more than five groups, we have armurabitoon, we have akiem, we have ansarul a whole lot of groups and then we have the isis group which is very active in southwestern niger and southeastern maso. okay, let me let me let me move to our guests. i just want to get a number from youtunda, as well, you heard heard what our guests there said, um, you have three countries that france was there with to help with the security situation. you also have uh

the fact that you have a biggest uh us drone base that's situated there uh, called the agades drone base, which is a nigerian air base, core components of the... uh expanded us military so-called fight against terrorists to be one of his purposes, but yet they were not able to do that, and as our guests there said seems like the terrorists are even expanding. now the news is uh out uh whether the us is going to lose this base or not next year. why do you think these countries in particular uh with the french being there, including the us were not able to defeat the terrorists? well, um, france is failure and the us failure. against terrorism is part of a broader um, guess trend you could say, right? the us and france and other nato countries claim that they're in the sahel to secure the region against insurgent groups, but it's no it's no secret right, that these groups are really tools um that

lot of these forces used to destabilize countries in the sahel. we we can look back to the example of libya right, where uh the us, france, and nato funded, train. government right, and and there are uh reports that have come out. the hell that you know france has been engaged in similar activities uh uh since right that this uh this this coup in niger uh and so you know there there's a lot of distrust amongst the people of the sahel uh in terms of the the ability and the willingness and the purpose of uh i guess these military bases that the french and and the us have in the region right lot lot of folks have have even point pointed to the the idea that uh created this crisis by having these so-called uh insurgents attack civilian uh populations

that led to these african states inviting foreign military forces into their territories to help fight the violence from non-state armed groups, there are new york times articles going back to the libya uh conflict speaking to this this trend of of you now the us and france arming and and funding and and training right these groups to to create instability thank you uh we could probably dedicate another program for this particular topic, but we're going to have to move on here, and i'd like to ask you uh fidel, if i may about the way that france has taken advantage of african countries uh, in this case niger, and in particular, the this question comes about, and the answer is, well they've taken advantage of it through for example the resource by the name of uranium, okay, but we need to break that open a little bit, first of all, how do you explain that where you have 90% of nigerians not having electricity. based on what uh information we have, but yet it's selling uranium to france, um, and then we're going

to get into how they are taking advantage in that respect with the type of pricing they're getting. yeah, so um, like i've always said, after independence, france did not really, really pay attention today's formal colonies. um, the concentration was on french fams and french interests being pushed, resources being exploited. and all that, but the the attention, mostly the political class gained while the people suffered, and i have over the years written that while france liberalized its societies in, it's main societies in europe, in africa, they actually supported this political class to actually exploit their own countries, you can talk of cot divoir, you can talk of niger, you can talk of um mali, burkina faso and all other places, you remember in the 1980s when sankara. decided to win himself, he actually met an untimely death, and in fact france

cannot say that i did not know anything about that, so france has been its own um evil in africa, and so that is major problem, however, currently the people still need the support of their government, so whether military or civilian taking over, the people will need the support of the of the leadership, they will need economic. the socio-economic development, basic needs, and so i think that the military should pay their attention to providing for these, because in the long term, if the people do not get this, they will turn against the military as well, i don't see this as a black and white situation, yeah, the role that the cfa frank plaid needs to also be opened up here uh, because it's quite incredible uh tunda, how this uh really um took the sovereignty away from these countries, in the case of niger and other countries that were. former french colonies, the one that stands out um in some

respects of the top is how uh there was a requirement for the member states to uh deposit half of their exchange reserves into the french uh treasury plus another 20% from what we understand for financial liabilities, which means that they only had access to about 30% of their money. now this is just one of the ways that cfa frank uh scheme worked of which the french uh took advantage of and then uh directed that money either to pay off their debt, which some say is lot of money, or for them to reinvest in other areas and for them to make money. uh, isn't that tatamon to what the accusation is, which is uh, taking away a country's sovereignty by enforcing this type of a scheme? absolutely, um, the franca, the cfa frank right, is a direct legacy of french colonial africa, it was established in 1945 in response to france's. ratification of the bretton woods agreement right that you know established the imf and the world bank and also devalued the

french frank and it it refers to two separate but um interchangeable really currency unions the west african cfa frank and the central african cfa frank and so despite their independence in the 1960s and 70s uh something like 14 francophone african countries chose to preserve close ties to france and preserve the usage of the cfa frank and you're saying, it it has allowed france to to assert its will and control over uh lot of aspects of the monetary policy, really the economy in these countries right, and and it's it's a huge source of anti-french sentiment in the region, especially from african youth right, which i think is key a key demographic right uh, given their their large population in many many of these states uh, and and and they see it really is a literal example of their country's dependence on france, and a lasting

uh uh remnant of of the colonial period uh, really aspect of neolonialism, um and you know it's not just folks in in these countries that are criticizing the the cfa frank, it's you know folks throughout uh uh europe, we we saw um you know uh italian leaders like uh luigi de mayo uh you know allegging that well we'll just criticizing this this policy this colonial uh hangover um and i think it's something that has to be removed if we want to see the end of french influence on west africa or if if that's what the masses are looking for yeah the the reason why we're going to get into these issues. as we are um the fidel is to understand how also french uh benefited from this to the point from african countries uh the 14 that are former colonies uh to the point where without them franch uh france would not be or have the standing that it has in the world uh as we know it for example looking at uh the uh french multinationals

that are present there in uh in africa uh we're looking at um arieva and vince africa that have granted france access to these strategic resources. we talked about uranium and what's happening there, but we understand that there other uh resources like gabon, which is source of crude oil, mauritania, iron oil, togo and benin provide agricultural commodities, and uh, there are other resources that french is taking advantage of, which we is called exploitation, gold, copper, diamond, boxide, timber. crude oil uh, how to what degree would was this happening and how did this come about and why is it that this uh in some respects is still continuing? all right, so um, first of all we must um try and explain that um countries

investing in other countries is basically not wrong, if one country like let's say iran is in. investing in kenya as president raisy came around in east africa, it is not wrong, but when that investment becomes exploitative to the people, then it becomes wrong, so iran is definitely going to have a win-win game with afrikan countries, iran is definitely going to have uh uh mutual respect in a relationship, but when it becomes master servant relations, as it happened in the 50s after france was leaving africa, then it becomes exploitative, then it becomes... asymmetrical, then you don't see any kind of equality or mutual respect, all you see is domination that one um actor becomes more dominant in the other, and in the process the people suffer, because then the resources that have been extracted do not benefit the people, so if niger has uranium deposits and uranium is the main foel for nuclear energy,

if you niger... has that and it is not energy dependent, it does not have enough energy in the country and has to import from other countries, then it means that the relationship that it has has, it has had with eight formal colonial power has not been that that is mutual, has not been a win-win game, it has actually been a zero sum game, and so i think that the redefinition of the relationship between niger and france is very necessary, i don't believe that france should be entirely cut off from. there because the international community we need each other, we need to relate, however that relationship must be based on mutual respect and must be based on the people gaining from their own resources and not someone being in paris benefiting more than the person in nei, the capital of niger, so in the sahil, i think that with it abundant resources, the sahhil

currently needs more partners that engage in mutual. uh mutually beneficial contracts and invests so that the people benefit their um living is is is is better and they have better life, well okay, so that's a great point that you make there and to, i'd like to expand on that, the fact that african countries need more partners that uh basically um have a win-win uh type approach, and i think that was uh, that's just witnessed. that was actually witnessed when you had the bricks uh forum take place uh where you there was an intense interest on african countries, 40 of them i believe to want to join that organization because african countries and my question to you is: "it appears that they are sick and tired of the way that the west has dealt with them, in particular, the topic of our discussion here being france, and maybe we could put uh the us in that picture also, us just seems to be

behind when it comes to france uh to africa anyways, uh, because uh, they just want to make sure their people are going to benefit also. um, is that a correct way of looking at it, and hence descri, explaining, explains why african countries are now turning to organizations like bricks." "i believe so, so i'm sorry, this is for a guess in atlanta uh tunda, go ahead, sorry, i believe so, yeah, no, um, i, i think uh, you know, the attitude of france and the us and other western countries towards uh, lot of many african countries, lot of their former colonies, uh, has been one of paternalism, right, since the independence of many states in africa, france, and the u.s. and others have maintained substantial economic and military. domination right of these of these countries, we could look back to um the the berlin conference in the uh late 1800s where uh many

western countries came together and and uh decided which of of the uh of the african continent which which parts of the continent they would dominate right and so i think a lot of those uh uh types of attitudes and and relationships have been maintained even post independence and like you said like lot of african countries they want to have uh uh you know mutually beneficial relationships with with with uh partners throughout throughout the world like like my uh uh my my uh fellow uh speaker here has has shared right like we need each other right in this in this world economy uh states need to uh cooperate and and and work together uh but the way that the west is is acting is is untenable uh i think the the development in in bricks is is positive uh uh i think there there's a lot more that needs to be done in order for uh these countries uh uh to to assert their own uh um you know mutually beneficial ways of of

operating with other other states and and that includes uh working to end um you know the these uh neocolonial ways of relating uh removing lot of these dependent leaders or or leaders who were acting oftentimes in the interest of the west of of uh foreign countries of instead of in the interest of their people. and so i think that that's one thing we need to to overcome. all right, last question here uh in a minute if you can um fidel the former president uh said that france without uh exploiting africa would lose its global standing and that without africa france will slide down into the rank of a third world power. do you agree? yes, so he was actually talking about the fact that you know, african colonies, french, african colonies. when hitler invaded um france, it was the french colonies that really supported the free french movement that was based in london, the exiled government in london, it

was the colonies, they actually supplied them with lot of cash, lot of resources in order to uh resist hitler, and after the war, france will not let them go, and so they arranged what we call the french community or for francophony in order to keep those resources still. streaming in europe and in fact that has not benefited the african, that's the most important thing about his coot that if africa should stop supplying france with resources and france is going to collapse, then it means that the relationship between africa and it france and its formal colonies is not that that is fair and so it should be fair, that is all right, thank you very much, we unfortunately have to end it there, fidel amasu, international relations and security analyst from macra, and thank you. thank you, tunda osa, africa team member at black alliance for peace from atlanta. thank you to you both. with that we come to an end for this edition of the spotlight. for me. and the team, it's goodbye.

çok teşekkür ederiz.

our special coverage of the railway and transportation expo uh at the terwan international exhibition center is this week uh we're going to be checking out some of the latest achievements in the field of railway and transportation and learn a singker too about the industry, make sure you stay tuned.

the headlines, the drawn attack a military college in central syria has left scores of people dead. armenia and azerbaijan accused each other of opening cross-border fire, the latest flare up of tensions between the two neighbors. also coming up, president putin reite rates russia's objection to the western model for world order, saying any attempt to establish and monopoly is doing to fail.