Niger Crisis Sparks Fears in France of Being Squeezed Out of Africa by Russia, China, US

Niger was rocked by a military takeover last month, with the new authorities freezing uranium and precious metals exports. France, which depends on the African nation for nearly a fifth of the uranium powering its nuclear power plants, has expressed its support for a possible military intervention by a regional political bloc known as the ECOWAS.

A group of French lawmakers has sent an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron demanding a review of France’s Africa policy and warning that the Niger crisis shows that Paris is being squeezed out of Africa by other world powers including Russia, China and the United States.

“Niger today, Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina yesterday have rejected France, French forces, French companies,” the letter, signed by 94 lawmakers, including Senate Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Christian Cambon, complained.

Citing the failure of Operation Barkhane, the 3,000 troop-strong French military intervention in the Sahel region, ostensibly against Islamist groups, between 2014 and 2022, the letter warned that the intervention of Russian military contractors ready to support African leaders looking to “unit[e] their populations against the old ‘colonial power’” have threatened Paris’s position.

“This movement in sub-Saharan Africa is spreading with demonstrations and anti-French acts even in countries known to be close to us, such as Cote d’Ivoire or Senegal,” the lawmakers’ appeal opined.

In North Africa too, the French lawmakers cited a string of “disappointments” – from difficult relations with Algeria and its president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who alternates between rapprochement and dubbing Paris as the ‘“Great Satan’ responsible for all the evils against the Algerian people.” In Morocco, “French procrastination over the Sahara…is pushing the Royal Palace to look elsewhere for military and economic partners.”

The same is the case in Tunisia, where “the erratic President Kais Saied turns alternately to the United States, the European Union, the Arab World, and less and less to France, which no longer has a privileged role,” the appeal said.

The lawmakers expressed concerns about the fate of France's so-called sphere of influence in Africa, and the growing influence of Russia, China and the United States on the continent.

Reminding Macron that the Senate had alerted him regarding this sorry state of affairs back in the spring, the lawmakers implied that it was “time to review our vision of Africa and its link with France.”

“It is probably time to do so, when France, a friendly continent, no longer seems to understand France, and is increasingly contesting its role and presence. For our part, we are not resigned to our gradual disappearance from the entire continent,” the letter added.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu blasted the lawmakers over their comments, claiming Operation Barkhane had been a success, not a failure, and criticizing them for their lack of "specific proposals."

"This letter, devoid of specific proposals, could have at least paid tribute to what has been achieved by our army...I cannot let anyone say that Operation Barkhane was a failure. Our army constantly pushed back terrorist groups in the Sahel, saving thousands of lives on the spot and protecting the French from the threat of terrorist attacks on our territory," Lecornu tweeted Tuesday, while admitting that 'certain political lessons' could be learned.

Niger Crisis

The landlocked West African nation of Niger was rocked by a military overthrow of its government in late July, sparking concerns in Paris that France, which continues to exert significant economic influence over Niger could lose 17 percent of the uranium powering its network of nuclear power plants, which provide the European nation with up to 70 percent of its electricity.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a political and economic union of fifteen regional nations, has threatened to intervene militarily to depose the new military government, with Paris expressing support for the military initiative. Mali and Burkina Faso expressed solidarity with Niger, warning against any foreign military intervention, and sparking fears of the possibility of a major regional conflict if ECOWAS makes good on its threat to intervene.