News for today's 2018

<br /> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1JCiuoMI4ASzt2nCmXgWdeCE58tmvoNcFQoDbX9uWc5ZHvsDZVrxlvQZaBM0mL0-OM7ShzhWZamIvVmSvo-wrWPcWbrwO9v2a9YxEPFfl6_CxRj0LMrXNcIr7jSPVz14lwa9nBSzDLCf/s1600/01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1JCiuoMI4ASzt2nCmXgWdeCE58tmvoNcFQoDbX9uWc5ZHvsDZVrxlvQZaBM0mL0-OM7ShzhWZamIvVmSvo-wrWPcWbrwO9v2a9YxEPFfl6_CxRj0LMrXNcIr7jSPVz14lwa9nBSzDLCf/s400/01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FRANÇAFRIQUE</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By Ruby Pratka</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When François Hollande's face flashed on their TV screens, the people of Yopougon rose and celebrated as if his presidential victory in France was their own. "It's a big party here," local journalist Stéphane Goué said on election night, from a friend's home in the working-class area of Abidjan, the largest city in COTE D'IVOIRE. "Groups of people have come out into the streets, and outside our house we hear horns honking."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">SMOOTH TRANSITION TO INDEPENDENCE</span></b></span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTLn4TUU60fFe7eamEmkKel7-or39W7VMOvf4zyXphlX3RgatLtbcAF70yRAcZbFXVYhxgW6hxSytjCOAXd9eeb-pp2ulayj3aaWnWiatYh5Ict1JXmKbkANA-xoybPdUDeD3KoN4nDb0S/s1600/africa_pol00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTLn4TUU60fFe7eamEmkKel7-or39W7VMOvf4zyXphlX3RgatLtbcAF70yRAcZbFXVYhxgW6hxSytjCOAXd9eeb-pp2ulayj3aaWnWiatYh5Ict1JXmKbkANA-xoybPdUDeD3KoN4nDb0S/s400/africa_pol00.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sahel and North African Hotspots</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Goings-on in the Elysée Palace have interested—and affected—WEST AFRICANS for decades. In FRENCH WEST AFRICA, the colonizer was not toppled in an uprising—no riots and protest marches as in BRITISH GHANA, no bloody guerilla wars as in ALGERIA. FRANCE divested itself of its AFRICAN colonies primarily to cut costs, due to the lingering effects of the Second World War and the country's disastrous exit from INDOCHINA in the 1950s. The leaders of the new independent states—MAURITANIA, NIGER, MALI and CHAD in the north, SENEGAL, GUINEA, COTE D'IVOIRE, BENIN BURKINA FASO and CAMEROON in the west, GABON and CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE in the southwest, the CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC in the heart of the continent and the tiny foothold of DJIBOUTI on the eastern coast—were uniformly FRENCH-trained, and several had served in the FRENCH army during the Second World War. AFRICA'S first post-Independence leaders had deep personal and professional links with FRANCE. Before taking the reins of their own countries, SENEGAL'S Lépolod Sédar Senghor had been a minister in the FRENCH cabinet, and IVOIRIAN leader Félix Houphouet-Boigny a senator.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FRENCH MILITARY PRESENCE IN AFRICA</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FRANCE maintains military bases in GABON, CHAD and DJIBOUTI as well as a smaller military presence in COTE D'IVOIRE and in Bangui, the restive capital of the CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. Defense accords signed with former colonies give the FRENCH government priority in buying raw materials such as uranium. Economic links are also strong; 15 of the young states use currencies that were pegged to the FRENCH franc and are now linked to the Euro. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background Information: </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FRANCE AND THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">FRANCE reluctant to be left alone to deal with another AFRICAN hotspot – MALI, CHAD and now the CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/france-and-central-african-republic.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/france-and-central-african-republic.html</a></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">CHAD AND ITS OIL RESERVES</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mounting border conflict with SUDAN may hinder economic development </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/chad-and-its-oil-reserves.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/chad-and-its-oil-reserves.html</a></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;">FRENCH TELECOMMUNICATION FOOTHOLD ON THE CONTINENT</span> </span></b><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguUDluTCEO6Cry4DZDyAXBUFmLfi2kQLw5WHiS7j9wrD8H0vNXjYzSUCXMd4wbwXW1WKjkhE_WdFdYux-YObDxPxwYu6FnpmExSi0oHhsBnJ81UU6g0y8N-QpktCUQ9LWUkPoBCxwWoZS0/s1600/orange-map.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguUDluTCEO6Cry4DZDyAXBUFmLfi2kQLw5WHiS7j9wrD8H0vNXjYzSUCXMd4wbwXW1WKjkhE_WdFdYux-YObDxPxwYu6FnpmExSi0oHhsBnJ81UU6g0y8N-QpktCUQ9LWUkPoBCxwWoZS0/s200/orange-map.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French Telecom (Orange) </td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FRENCH business conglomerates such as BOUYGUES, ORANGE and BOLLORÉ control large portions of the telecommunications and shipping markets in WEST AFRICA, and COTE D'IVOIRE in particular. "The FRENCH government is now an agent of FRENCH business interests in AFRICA," observes André Silver Konan, an IVOIRIAN journalist who covers WEST AFRICAN politics for the continent-wide newsmagazine <i>Jeune Afrique</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was Houphouet-Boigny, who ruled COTE D'IVOIRE for 30 years with several FRENCH bureaucrats among his cabinet ministers, who coined the term "FRANÇAFRIQUE" to describe the friendly relations between FRANCE and its former AFRICAN empire.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">AFRICAN NATIONS INFLUENCE IN FRENCH POLICIES </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Houphouet-Boigny used the word in a positive sense, but it didn't remain that way. In the current FRENCH media, the word evokes a shadowy network of personal friendships and money transfers that influence policy on both sides of the Atlantic. "I give you your budget; I can do what I want," former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing apparently told Jean-Bédel Bokassa. D'Estaing had helped finance Bokassa's grandiose wedding ceremony—worth one-fourth of the annual budget of the country—before growing exasperated with his protegé's wasteful spending and flirtation with Muammar Gaddafi—and throwing FRENCH military support behind a 1979 student uprising that brought down the Bokassa regime. In FRANCE, political campaigns were financed by oil and even aid money that AFRICAN leaders—particularly longtime GABONESE President Omar Bongo—skim off and send back to Paris, therefore manipulating FRENCH policy in their own way.</span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xGa5RAayepHod2kxjBNysJKEe_ad1gqNOQnqbv5t0HNnj2iAYdnjt6NZd38Wn7nHBpnsZCnL319NIGWYgSgqLZTyi04xqjPYl_jKLoLB9_VGyROACXuYianYCwrWJ9XpmPCPT8dTiKD-/s1600/champs-armee-malienne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xGa5RAayepHod2kxjBNysJKEe_ad1gqNOQnqbv5t0HNnj2iAYdnjt6NZd38Wn7nHBpnsZCnL319NIGWYgSgqLZTyi04xqjPYl_jKLoLB9_VGyROACXuYianYCwrWJ9XpmPCPT8dTiKD-/s320/champs-armee-malienne.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MALI troops on parade with French troops</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since François Mitterand in 1990, FRENCH presidents have tried to distance themselves from the "old boys' club" of "occult networks" of FRANÇAFRIQUE. However, it was on Mitterrand's watch that the biggest disaster of FRANÇAFRIQUE occurred: a bungled military intervention in RWANDA—a former BELGIAN colony whose president had worked closely with FRANCE— that allowed some perpetrators of the 1994 genocide to escape across the CONGOLESE border.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PYROMANIAC </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Early in his presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy declared his desire to "break with" FRANÇAFRIQUE. But five years later, many AFRICANS don't see it that way.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sarkozy "is a pyromaniac," says Chaibou Boubacar, editor-in-chief of <i>Alternative Espaces Citoyens</i></span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">magazine</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Based on a survey I did yesterday in the capital [Niamey, NIGER], we're glad to be rid of him." The fires to which Boubacar alludes are the FRENCH interventions in COTE D'IVOIRE and LIBYA.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Our president [Mahamadou Issoufou] has traveled to Paris 14 times in a little more than a year," adds a resident of Niamey interviewed by <i>Jeune Afrique</i>. "What does he need to go there so often for? FRANCE needs to give us our independence back."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After a close, disputed election in Cote d'Ivoire in fall 2010, socialist incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo was widely believed to have lost but refused to give up power. After several months of slow-burning civil conflict, a FRENCH military intervention resulted in Gbagbo's arrest and installed his opponent, Alassane Ouattara, as president. Ouattara, a former IMF economist, is a friend and ideological ally of Sarkozy. His party, Rassemblement des Republicains, even signed a collaboration accord with Sarkozy's Unis pour un Mouvement Populaire shortly before the election.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"It's true that Hollande is a socialist, like Gbagbo, but people here are just happy to see Ouattara's puppet-master gone," says Goué.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FRANCE'S SUPPORT OF NATO INTERVENTION IN LIBYA,</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">also left a bad taste in the mouths of many AFRICANS. Former LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi had invested millions in schools, mosques and infrastructure across AFRICA, in the name of Islam and his dream of a "UNITED STATES OF AFRICA."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Of course [Gaddafi] was a dictator and a terrorist," Stéphane Goué says. "But his assassination was a bad thing for all of us. He had helped us solve a lot of international crises, especially in NIGER and in MALI."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background Information</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">LIBYA A FAILED STATE</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Volatile SAHEL region</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/libya-failed-state.html"><span lang="ES-AR" style="mso-ansi-language: ES-AR;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/libya-failed-state.html</span></a></span><span lang="ES-AR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: ES-AR; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">LIBYA THE WILD WEST OF NORTHERN AFRICA</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Porous borders turn LIBYA into radical sanctuary</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/libya-wild-west-of-northern-africa.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/10/libya-wild-west-of-northern-africa.html</a></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PRO GADDAFI FIGHTERS FLEEING LIBYA BROUGHT THEIR WEAPONS AND SEPERPATIST TO MALI AND TORN IT IN TWO </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In MALI, many blame FRANCE for an escalating internal crisis. Migrants who had worked in COTE D'IVOIRE and pro-Gaddafi fighters fleeing LIBYA brought their desperation, and their weapons, to MALI. Many veterans of the LIBYAN conflict joined the Tuareg separatist militias who have since torn MALI in two.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background Information: </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">EU INVOLVEMENT IN MALI</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why the SAHEL is crucial to EUROPE'S neighborhood – and its security strategy</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/07/eu-involvement-in-mali.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/07/eu-involvement-in-mali.html</a></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">THE URANIUM EQUATION </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sarkozy's diplomatic record in AFRICA has not been all bad. He was the first FRENCH president to receive post-genocide RWANDAN leader Paul Kagame, turning the page on nearly 20 years of bad blood. Nor is Hollande everything AFRICA has been looking for. It is not clear that he would have acted any differently given the situations in COTE D'IVOIRE and LIBYA, and he plans to reduce FRENCH reliance on nuclear energy—a disappointment for uranium-exporting NIGER.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, Sarkozy has alienated many AFRICANS with his occasionally anti-immigrant rhetoric and what some see as a patronizing attitude toward the former empire—epitomized in a 2007 speech in Dakar urging a university audience to forgive the "mistakes" of well-intentioned colonists and calling AFRICAN farmers "peasants."</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_QTDKZ3UMKBp8gEHYN74vXhhyeAbizxnOVvyYlDs1sEzj-vax2tQOOGcy05sJX1R54uACBvw_5AIPl_xyMfb2VpuNeg2fvb6DfMH1Ik_lo_cy8ga3riGmQlK0axUcR7O8WZ0db30oM2d/s1600/FRANCAFRIQUE.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_QTDKZ3UMKBp8gEHYN74vXhhyeAbizxnOVvyYlDs1sEzj-vax2tQOOGcy05sJX1R54uACBvw_5AIPl_xyMfb2VpuNeg2fvb6DfMH1Ik_lo_cy8ga3riGmQlK0axUcR7O8WZ0db30oM2d/s320/FRANCAFRIQUE.JPG" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With Hollande, AFRICAN leaders expect "more partnership and less condescension," in the words of a CONGOLESE government spokesperson. Time will tell if they get it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since President Hollande's took over the rains, it appears that FRANCE may be on the road to a new kind of presence in AFRICA. As Sarkozy left office, it became public that his government had renegotiated post-colonial defense accords in AFRICA, removing FRANCE'S prerogative to intervene in case of civil unrest. One of Hollande's first acts was to rename the Ministry of Cooperation (which largely handled relations with the ex-empire from Charles de Gaulle's time) the Ministry of Cooperation and Development. In an interview with Jeune Afrique, Hollande expressed his government's plan to "trust AFRICA to resolve the questions which concern them directly."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While Hollande himself has little experience in AFRICA, his appointed Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius knows Ouattara and has met with the presidents of TOGO, GABON and Benin. Fabius has said he would like to "finish with the coups, the announcements that are not followed up and all the convolutedness of FRANÇAFRIQUE."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Read related articles: </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/08/france-eager-to-engage-in-syra-why.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2013/08/france-eager-to-engage-in-syra-why.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/12/usa-china-and-africa.html">http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.co.at/2012/12/usa-china-and-africa.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/africa-and-usa.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/africa-and-usa.html</a></span></div></div>

AFRICAN AND FRANCE, A NEW ERA?

FRANÇAFRIQUE By Ruby Pratka When François Hollande's face flashed on their TV screens, the people of Yopougon rose and celebrated as if...

AFRICAN AND FRANCE, A NEW ERA?

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