Anti-French sentiment is gaining ground across a number of West African countries, where the presence of the former colonial power, engaged in fighting armed jihadist insurgents across the Sahel, is challenged by growing Russian influence and popular anger against its history of support for strongman regimes. Protests against France’s military presence in the region have now spilled over into Chad, France’s key African ally, governed by a junta, where last month French nationals were targeted in the capital N’Djamena and petrol stations belonging to oil giant Total were ransacked. Rémi Carayol reports.
Over the past three years, anti-French demonstrations have swept West Africa, above all in those countries where France’s military is deployed in anti-jihadist operations – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, but also in Senegal, all former French colonies.
