The bloody 19th-century military mission that still sours relations between France and Niger
In 1899 a French-led military expedition left widespread carnage and death in its wake as it marched across parts of West Africa. Soldiers from the so-called Voulet-Chanoine Mission – otherwise known as the Central African Mission – looted, killed and raped in areas that are today part of the nation of Niger. Descendants of those communities hit by the military mission's rampage are now calling on France, via organisations at the United Nations, to acknowledge and make amends for those colonial crimes. Paris has flatly refused, amid a major breakdown in diplomatic relations with Niger. Report by Rémi Carayol.
OpeningOpening its archives and admitting to some of its colonial crimes, as it has done with Algeria, Cameroon and Senegal in recent years and perhaps soon with Madagascar, is something Emmanuel Macron’s France is capable of, to a certain degree at any rate. But not always, and certainly not with just anyone.
