Franco-African relations – a new defence policy for Africa?
As stated in his electoral programme, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has officially announced the review of the defence agreements between France and Africa. The review announced whilst in South Africa in February 2008 is part of the new African policy that is intended to replace the "Françafrique system". With the announcement comes anticipated changes and what many hope will result in a more open and less clandestine approach to defence policy dealings with Africa.
THE RELATIONSHIP SO FAR…
France has defence agreements in place with eight African countries, namely: the Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Djibouti, Gabon, Cameroon and the Central African Republic. In Chad, while there is no specific defence agreement, a cooperation that enables the French forces to provide logistical support (such as transport, healthcare, and oil) and intelligence to that country’s army is in place.
The presence of French military bases date back to colonial times, with the most important ones considered to be situated in Djibouti (strategic for the control of the Red Sea), Dakar, Abidjan and Libreville. Chad is seen as especially strategic in the context of defence relations, being the only African country that has hosted a long-term operational military deployment since 1986. At the time of its establishment, Libyan forces were moving into Chad and the latter’s government requested French military assistance; since then, this French military deployment (named operation "Epervier") continues and proved vital to Chadian leadership at the beginning of 2008 when French troops prevented rebels from ousting President Idriss Deby.
Since the 1990’s, French forces in Africa have been downsized as a result of the end of conscription in France. However, despite having a big impact on the deployment of French troops in the continent from a numerical perspective, the same cannot be said from a policy front. It is on this aspect that Sarkozy's announcement differs - it is not about downsizing the French troops in Africa but changing their rules of engagement and the cooperation between France and African countries. The current secret defence agreements state that the African governments can request the assistance of the French army in case of an internal security threat. The President regards this as an outdated system and is pushing for change for the new defence agreements to be negotiated with willing governments and endorsed by Parliament. This would result in open agreements and end the covert nature of Franco-Africa defence policies. The white paper on defence that is presently being drafted will include this new approach based on transparency and clear rules of engagement.
NO CHANGES FORESEEN IN THE NEAR FUTURE
Despite Sarkozy’s statement that “Africa must take care of African security problems", one must not assume that the number of French troops stationed in Africa will decrease in the near future. Several factors oppose such a change in the near-term:
- Firstly, no African leaders have actually requested the departure of the French forces and only one African leader – Togo’s President - welcomed the defence agreement review. Even Laurent Gbagbo who is known for his anti-French attitude did not request the departure of the French soldiers based in the Ivorian capital. This may be the result of the French military intervention in N'Djamena that was a last minute rescue for the Chadian President;
- Secondly, if the defence agreements are outdated, the French military bases have recently proved their utility for peace keeping and rescue missions. The Libreville base backed up the deployment of a European force in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006; the capture of the Somali pirates was organised from the Djibouti base ; and the Chad and Central African Republic bases are used for the new EUFOR mission; and
- Thirdly, the building of an African peace-keeping capacity will obviously take time. As the process is not only a technical operation but a high-level diplomatic process, it will entail a great amount of tact and discretion on the part of France as it attempts to overhaul its relations with the continent.
(1) A French ship, the Ponant, was hijacked by Somali pirates in April. After the ransom was paid and the hostages were released, the French Special Forces hunted down the pirates and captured them in Somalia.
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