~ The PanAfric Writes:
A year ago, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the new Washington strategy for Africa. Unlike to previous president Trump, the Biden administration increases its activity in the cradle of humanity — objecting to ‘promote democratic governance across the continent’, as Blinken has pointed out during his speech at the University of Pretoria in August 2022 in South Africa. Thereafter, keeping his African tour on, Blinken visited the DRC and Rwanda.
Since that time, the result is obvious: the tensions between the DRC and Rwanda have only aggravated; in the Kivu area, at the two countries’ boundary, a humanitarian catastrophe expands, the risk of the new war has even risen. The only question is whether it is a kind of American humour — they’ve promised us democracy, then we’ve faced a war — or it is a deliberate Washington strategy to provoke instability as it did in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and worldwide.
But speaking seriously. For every reasonable person it is clear that the US strategy — behind ‘promoting democracy’ — also has a non-public dimension: to counter the American competitors, such as Russia, China, Islamic countries, and others.
On July 26, 2023, the brightest example of democracy occurred: in Niger, the patriotic part of the society led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani had overthrown president Mohamed Bazoum. The Western media call it coup d’état, but in fact it is a National Revolution as ex-president Bazoum belonged to non-Nigerien ethnical minority, was affiliated with France, and endorsed the neocolonial system of exploiting Nigerien resources such as uranium.
Also, there were lots of similarities with the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine when armed people gained power and ousted an internationally-recognized president. Surprisingly, the White House praised the Ukrainian case but strictly condemned the Nigerien: a Rules-Based World Order the US stands for.
Moreover, on March 15-16, 2023, Secretary Blinken paid a visit to Niger and met the then-president Bazoum. We don’t know what they talked about but perhaps the American guest was assuring his vis-a-vis in the US support — given that in Niger, one of the largest American drone sites, codenamed Niger Air Base 201, is situated.
If we became a Devils’ Advocate and look from Bazoom’s side, the Americans repeatedly gave him guarantees and expressed their support — while now this person is isolated in his mansion and Deputy Secretary Victoria Nuland visits Niger on August 7, 2023, negotiating Bazoum’s successors.
This means, the cost of any American guarantee is equal to the guarantees Washington had previously given to Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Milošević, Yanukovich, and the pro-American government of Afghanistan whose members stormed the airplanes trying to flee when the US troops escaped Kabul in 2021.
But back to our story. In the Nigerien plot, we see the US’ policy insults not only Africa but even its traditional Western allies like France.
Let me cite a top media alleging Palais de l’Élysée in neo-colonialism amid an anti-colonial revolution in another French ex-colony (a report as of September 1, 2023):
‘…another coup has taken place in Gabon but this time there will be no French cavalry to the rescue…’
‘…French policy is not popular. There are all these protests [in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon, etc] and people are attacking French businesses which to many people here represent French neo-colonialism…’
‘…The ongoing events in Gabon, taking place in the wake of the coup in Niger, shines another spotlight on France’s dysfunctional relationship with its former colonies in Africa and the damaging ways Western support for autocrats on the continent…’
And so on, and so on. Even I would assign such a text! But can you guess its source? RT or Sputnik from Russia? Or Global Times from China? No, that’s a report by American CNN, one of Biden’s main proponents.
Yet what is the problem? On the other hand (as if none would notice it), the US is pushing the ECOWAS countries to an armed invasion of Niger. The main driver of such a scenario is Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, a pivotal American ally in the region who has been educating in Chicago in the 1970s.
Thereby, the United States is trying not just to improve its reputation in Africa, but also to gain more power as its former partners like France are weakening.
The real goal of the Washington strategy is clear: while France and its neo-colonial policy of Francafrique fail miserably in the region, the United States wants to take their place.
The instruments are various: not only diplomatic intrigues, but also brutality. The Russian special services have reported that a hundred of experienced mercenary fighters from Ukraine are about to carry out terrorist attacks in African countries, especially those who cooperate with Russia.
In the original message, the responsibility for this deadly plan is pinned on the UK rather than the US, but since 2014, Ukraine with its nationalistic government has been the main US asset in Europe which entirely follows the US agenda.
If this news is true, false-flag ops — to conduct terroristic attacks in Africa under mask of somebody Russian-speaking — are also possible as Ukrainians are mostly similar to Russians, with relative ethnicity and language.
In other words, the United States, Britain, and France have created a dangerous tool, Ukraine (let’s remember the recent NYT investigation of how the Ukrainian missile had hit the Ukraine-controlled town of Konstantinovka on September 6, 2023) — and are ready to use this tool at the African stage.
Thus, the American plans regarding the uprisen Africa are the following:
1) to physically eliminate the revolutionary leaders of Niger (and perhaps the neighbour countries);
2) to encourage ECOWAS members to invade Niger.
So the general strategy of the United States, as well as in the 2011 Libyan campaign, is to destabilize the region and to destroy any independent African elites who dare to assert their sovereignty. Practically, the US will do it by someone else’s hands, as it has always done — by the hands of jihadists, Tuareg separatists, Ukrainian militants, French legions, or ECOWAS restrictions.
From my POV, an effective solution for the region could be a strategic military and political alliance with Russia, backed up by China’s economic investments. Only the countries that historically have the recordings of anti-colonial struggle and the ideals of social justice are able to work with Africa on the basement of equality, with benefits for all parties.