With Africa’s ‘France Out’ campaign gaining momentum, Paris’s influence set to erode further — experts

France faces a significant challenge to its influence in West and Central Africa as Chad, Senegal and most recently also Ivory Coast have announced the end to traditional military cooperation with their former colonial master, experts say, adding that this would unravel France’s remaining logistics and military footprint in the region.
In recent months, six African countries, including its key allies Senegal, Chad and Ivory Coast, have asked France to withdraw its troops, significantly curtailing the European country’s influence in the West and Central African region that it had traditionally had a sway in, according to Firstpost. “The fact that such moves have come at a time when Russia is making inroads in the continent cannot be missed,” says the analysis. Describing this development as “a new strategic shift”, experts at the Devdiscourse news portal highlight the significant challenge to French influence in the region after its traditional allies decided to end the military cooperation. “This move dovetails with France’s strategic reduction of troops on the continent, aiming to reshape its presence and counter rising Russian influence,” says a latest analysis in Devdiscourse.
Other experts note that the fate of French influence in the region was widely seen as having been sealed even before Ivory Coast’s decision. According to Mucahid Durmaz, a senior analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, “Chad’s decision marks the final nail in the coffin of France’s post-colonial military dominance in the entire Sahel region.” With African nations forging partnerships with diverse players, such as China, Russia, India, Turkey and the UAE, researcher Jonathan-Fenton Harvey notes that “[president] Macron is witnessing the erosion of France’s once-dominant influence in Francophone Africa, a region long considered Paris’s geopolitical ‘backyard’ even after the breakup of the French Empire.” As for Russia’s interest to replace the French military presence in Senegal, Chad and Ivory Coast, as it has done in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, a recent analysis in the Institute for the Study of War argued that the Kremlin “is likely unable to replicate its central Sahel success in the short term due to Russia’s capacity limitations.”