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French colonialism

France Is A State Sponsor Of Terror, AES Countries Declare

“Terrorism is being used” by imperialist forces “to pillage African resources,” said Burkina Faso’s Prime Minister Rimtalba Ouédraogo in his address at the 80th UN General Assembly (UNGA). “A case in point is France,” whose troops Burkina Faso expelled in early 2023. Mali, which had also expelled French troops the year before, had sought a meeting of the UN Security Council in 2022, “so that my country could provide irrefutable proof of France’s support for terrorist activities,” recalled its Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga in his address. “So far, this request has not been followed up on,” while France continues its “sabotage”.

Tens Of Thousands Protest In Ivory Coast Against Slide Into Dictatorship

France is “closely watching over the upcoming elections in October in its former colony, to ensure its protégé, President Alassane Ouattara, does not lose”, said Achy Ekissi, General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast (PCRCI). Taking power in 2011 with the help of French military intervention, 83-year-old Ouattara is attempting to grab office for a fourth term by barring both main contestants from running for the upcoming election in October. While “half-heartedly asking Ouattara to step down”, France is “in reality, supporting his dictatorial drift because they have not yet found another pawn to replace him,” he told Peoples Dispatch.

200 Hundred Years Ago, France Strangled Haitian Revolution With Inhumane Debt

On a stormy August night in 1791, Dutty Boukman (1767–1791) and Cécile Fatiman (1771–1883) conducted a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman in northern Saint-Domingue, in the French-owned part of Hispaniola. Boukman was captured in Senegambia (now Senegal and The Gambia), and Fatiman was the daughter of a woman from the Congo (as Aimé Césaire wrote) and a man from Corsica. Their ceremony amidst over two hundred enslaved Africans was the catalyst for a mass uprising across the French plantations. Boukman, in Kreyòl, spoke words that were passed down through memory for generations and eventually entered the history books.

France Must Compensate Haiti

April 17, 2025 marked two centuries since one of the most unjust episodes in modern history: the forced collection of an illegitimate debt that France imposed on Haiti as a condition for recognizing its independence. On April 17, 1825, King Charles X signed an ordinance forcing the nascent republic to pay 150 million gold francs – equivalent to about USD 21 billion today – plunging the country into a cycle of poverty, dependence, and violence that continues to this day. Amid an unprecedented humanitarian and political crisis, social organizations, political parties, and human rights defenders from Latin America and the Caribbean have submitted letters to French embassies demanding historical reparations.

A New Military Strategy Of French Neo-Colonialism In Africa

In his New Year’s address, Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast since 2010 when he took power with the aid of a French military intervention, announced “we have decided on the coordinated and organized withdrawal of French forces” from the country. However, his address made no mention of terminating the 1961 military agreements with France. These “agreements are at the root of the problem. As long as these agreements exist, France will be able to use them to carry out military maneuvers or intervene at the request of its servants in power in Ivory Coast,” General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast (PCRCI), Achy Ekissi, told Peoples Dispatch.

France Must Go From Africa Is The Slogan Of The Hour

A cascade of anti-French sentiment continues to sweep across the belt of the Sahel in Africa: joining Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, Chad and Senegal demanded in November that the French government withdraw its military from their territories. From the western border of Sudan to the Atlantic Ocean, French armed forces, which have been in the area since 1659, will no longer have a base. The statement by the foreign minister of Chad, Abderaman Koulamallah, is exemplary: ‘France… must now also consider that Chad has grown up, matured, and that Chad is a sovereign state that is very jealous of its sovereignty’.

Chad And Senegal To Follow The Sahel States

Dakar — Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said on Thursday that the presence of French military bases on Senegalese territory is “not compatible” with the sovereignty his administration upholds. “Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country, and sovereignty is not compatible with the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” he said in an interview with the AFP news agency, addressing relations between Senegal and France, particularly regarding the French military presence and bases in the West African country.

People Of Sahel Inspire Global Movement Against Imperialism

Shouts of “Free, Free Palestine” and “Down with Imperialism” rang through the streets of Niamey as anti-imperialists from Niger and around the world marched together against Israel’s genocide on Thursday, November 21. The march culminating in the landmark Thomas Sanakra Memorial came at the conclusion of the three-day Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel, organized by the Pan-Africanism Today Secretariat and the West African People’s Organization. The march was no symbolic event. Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have been in the frontlines of the struggle against imperialism over the past few years.

Niger Hosts Historic Conference On The Fight Against Neocolonialism

Delegates from the popular movements, labor unions, peasant organizations, and left parties in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US have arrived in Niamey, the capital of Niger, to attend the “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel” from November 19 to 21. The Pan Africanism Today Secretariat (PAT) and the West Africa People’s Organization (WAPO) have organized this conference “For Anti-Imperialist Unity, Peace, and Friendship between Peoples”, at the time of a critical breakthrough against Francafrique in Sahelian West Africa. Amid a wave of mass protests against the continued stranglehold of France over its former colonies, popularly supported military coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Burkina Faso in 2022, and in Niger in 2023 swept away the regimes domestically perceived as subservient to France.

Niger Resists In The Crosshairs Of Sanctions And Climate Catastrophe

In the aftermath of devastation left behind in the wake of unprecedented floods, Nigeriens are rebuilding their livelihoods and economy with the help of the several relief measures instituted by the government to drastically cut prices of essential commodities and services. The Sahel-wide flooding between June and October has exacted a particularly high toll on the people of Niger, destroying crops, cattle, houses and infrastructure in one of the world’s poorest countries whose economy had already been strangled by the seven month-long sanctions.

Niger To Host Conference In Solidarity With The Sahel

This November, Niger is opening its doors to voices from across Africa and beyond, in a show of solidarity with the people of the Sahel, as they face one of the region’s most dynamic periods. From November 19 to 21, Niger’s capital, Niamey, will host the “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel,” a three-day event dedicated to addressing the urgent struggles and aspirations of the Sahelian people. Set in the Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Center, the conference will bring together activists, political leaders, union representatives, and members of social movements and Pan-African communities from around the world.

Martinique Masses Continue Rebellion Against French Colonial System

The Caribbean Island of Martinique is classified as an overseas department of France but it is treated like a colony, lacking any voice in its own affairs. Social unrest has flared up again prompted by hyperinflation and the heavy-handed tactics utilized by security forces under the control of Paris. Due to its colonial dependency, the rate of rising prices in Martinique far exceeds that of the colonial power in France. During September, thousands of people took to the streets in response to the escalating prices for food and other consumer goods. Riot police from France were deployed to put down the unrest which involved industrial actions among the workers.

The Pacific Lands And Seas Are Neither Forbidden Nor Forgotten

Since May, a powerful struggle has rocked Kanaky (New Caledonia), an archipelago located in the Pacific, roughly 1,500 kilometres east of Australia. The island, one of five overseas territories in the Asia-Pacific ruled by France, has been under French colonial rule since 1853. The indigenous Kanak people initiated this cycle of protests after the French government of Emmanuel Macron extended voting rights in provincial elections to thousands of French settlers in the islands. The unrest led Macron to suspend the new rules while subjecting islanders to severe repression. In recent months, the French government has imposed a state of emergency and curfew on the islands and deployed thousands of French troops, which Macron says will remain in New Caledonia for ‘as long as necessary’.

New Caledonia: Kanak Revolt Against French Colonialism

Recently, a high-intensity revolt has been taking place in New Caledonia: looting, destruction of businesses, armed struggle against the police (molotov cocktails, live ammunition...), prison mutiny... In any other region of France, this would be front-page news. But New Caledonia isn't just any other region of France. It's a colony, and as such it's of little interest to mainland France, so it's hard to understand what's going on there. Let's try to unravel the mystery. New Caledonia is a group of islands in Oceania. Until the 18th century, the indigenous peoples of New Caledonia lived without Western interference. This situation changed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Sahel’s ‘Axis Of Resistance’

The emergence of in various geographies is an inextricable byproduct of the long and winding process leading us toward a multipolar world. These two things – resistance to the Hegemon and the emergence of multipolarity – are absolutely complementary. The Axis of Resistance in West Asia – across Arab and Muslim states – now finds as its soul sister the Axis of Resistance spanning the Sahel in Africa, west to east, from Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea. Unlike Niger, where the change in power against neocolonialism was associated with a military coup, in Senegal, the power change comes straight from the polls.
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