Africa: What should we know about the abuses committed by France on the continent?

The abuses that the French army committed on the African continent are well known. Whether in Rwanda, the Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, or elsewhere, these exactions are real and crual.

However, despite all this, legal proceedings have remained unsuccessful.

At first glance, Rwanda has been accusing France for years of participating in the genocide that resulted in the deaths of approximately 800,000 people in 1994.These deaths were mostly from the Tutsi minority.

The Rwandan National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide has published a list of 22 French officers whom they accuse of being actively complicit in the massacre.

After the genocide of 800,000 Rwandans in 1994, France found itself accused on several fronts. Firstly, for its lack of reaction; secondly, for its ambiguous relations with the genocidal regime; and finally, for the abuses committed by its soldiers during Operation Turquoise.

In addition, the testimonies of several Rwandan women who claim to have been raped by French soldiers further fuel these accusations.

 While they have not dared to go to court, their accounts support the accusations of other Rwandan women who had already filed a complaint in 2004 before the Paris military tribunal.

The Nyarushishi refugee camp is at the center of most of these accusations. Under the protection of French soldiers sent as part of Operation Turquoise in the summer of 1994, this site is in the extreme southwest of Rwanda.

Tutsi displaced women who spoke under anonymity claim to have been raped multiple times by some of these men who were supposed to watch over them.

«They did the worst things to me; I was screaming so that someone would hear me. When they left, I was almost dead. », saying one of the women who testified that three soldiers attacked her.

In the Central African Republic, French soldiers were accused of raping minors under the age of 15 in CAR. In late July 2014, the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into these accusations.

Around ten children, some as young as 9 years old, were said to be victims. As in Rwanda and elsewhere, investigating judges ordered a dismissal of the case.

On the other hand, in West Africa, precisely in Mali, a country harassed by terrorist violence, France, the former colonizer bases its strategy on espionage to maintain instability in the country.

The Malian government accuses France of espionage and subversion. Malian authorities reproach the French army of violating its airspace more than fifty times. The Malian justice even launched an investigation into a presumed mass grave in Gossi.

Since 2012, Mali has been facing a deep security crisis that the deployment of French forces has not been able to resolve.

Since August 2020, there have been two military coups in Mali. The government led by Colonel Assimi Goita has decided to address the root cause of these issues, which is the French military presence. This has led to their departure.

At the same time, Malian authorities seized the UN Security Council. They were accusing France of providing weapons and intelligence to jihadist groups responsible for the deaths of thousands of Malians. This accusation resonates throughout the continent.

In Burkina Faso, the authorities led by His Excellency Ibrahim Traoré quickly took action. They forced France to make an accelerated departure from Mali during the summer.

France agreed to further reduce its military presence in the Sahel by withdrawing its troops from Burkina Faso within a month. By this action, anti-French sentiment has start growing in the continent.

Several reports from observers, pan-Africanists, and others confirm once again, executions and massacres committed in the north of Burkina Faso by the French army, as well as on mining sites.

According to some reports, witnesses reported that jihadists killed about a hundred civilians in the presence of the army in the extreme north of Burkina, near the Malian and Nigerien borders.

These points raised in the article demonstrate how France’s domination over its former colonies or elsewhere on the continent has brought nothing but misery to the African people.

However, the question that arises is why, despite all these proven atrocities committed by France, it has never been subject to any condemnation despite all these legal proceedings against it?

Why do we see no uproar from the international media on this issue? Are the African people considered internationally as cannon fodder?

Why has the UN Security Council never held an extraordinary meeting as usual to rule on France, its numerous atrocities, and the cry of distress from the African people, which has lasted far too long?