Côte d'Ivoire: Seventh African State expelling the French army
- Last Tuesday, 31 December, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara announced that he would break military relations with France following the earthquake in February. In the coming weeks, a thousand French soldiers will have to leave the country, according to the Department of Defence.
The announcement by the President of Ouattara surprised the French authorities, according to Al Yazira, who refused to declare. Ouatara is one of the closest African leaders in France and last August the lehendakari, Emmanuel Macron, offered him a private dinner at the Elysée.
The decision reflects France ' s growing difficulty in maintaining its economic and military influence on the former African colonies. In November 2004, Senegal and Txad made similar predictions. Senegal closed the French military bases on its territory. Chad has suspended the security and defence agreements signed with France.
Côte d'Ivoire is the seventh State to break up military relations with France and France in a few years. Before Senegal and Chad, in 2022 there were the Central African Republic and Mali, and in 2023 Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thus, France will keep its soldiers exclusively in two countries in Africa, including Gabon and Djibouti, respectively. It has recovered about 350 Christmas soldiers and by 2025 they will drop to 200. There are about 1,500 soldiers left from the Djibu.
In an article by Le Monde Diplomatique last December, Lehendakari Macron ordered the Minister of Labour, Jean-Marie Bockel, to report on the nature it should give to France’s strategic presence in Africa.
The minister had the report ready for 30 November, but he was unable to reveal the announcements that Senegal and Chad made hours later in Senegal. What happened in Chad was even reported a few hours after the visit of the Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, without him suspecting the announcement of the visit.
Paris has less and less information than is happening in its former African colonies. According to the Yearbook, one of the causes is also the loss of its cooperatives on this continent: In 1990, it was over 10,000, and today it's only about 700. This, among other things, prevents him from being aware of what is happening on a daily basis in those countries.
The economic loss has also been significant in recent decades. According to the in-depth article by La Vanguardia on the subject, in 2000 Africa had a trade with France that represented 10% of the total, and today it has fallen by 5%. By contrast, imports and exports from China at the beginning of the century were 2 per cent, and currently exceed 20.5 per cent.
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