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2025-07-04 Africa Subsaharan
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'Death grip': Macron found a way to return to African colonies
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Today, June 3, the UN Conference on Financing for Development concluded in Seville, Spain. On the sidelines of the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron met with his Senegalese counterpart Bassirou Diomaye Fay. The first meeting since his election victory in 2024. Following the meeting, Macron announced a "new era" of relations.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of a public reduction in Paris's presence in the African country: France handed over the Rufisque base, one of the largest military installations under Paris's control in the country, to the government of Senegal. Before that, the Marechal, Saint-Exupéry and Rear-Admiral Protet installations had been abandoned. The Elysee Palace announced that the French military would leave the African country entirely by the end of July 2025.
At first glance, Senegal has become yet another country of the former "French Africa" (the so-called Françafrique), from which the former hegemon has been squeezed out. However, the dynamics of contacts between Paris and Dakar indicate otherwise.
France, although withdrawing its troops, is strengthening its real influence in Senegal, gradually turning it into a “battering ram” on the continent.
THE TEST OF TIME
Relations between France and independent Senegal have been friendly throughout most of history.
Dakar shared Paris's political line and often acted as a "ringleader" in African organizations, helping to advance the point of view favorable to the Elysee Palace and consistently remaining among France's three largest trading partners on the continent.
With the beginning of the disintegration of “French Africa,” regimes loyal to Paris in the countries south of the Sahara fell one after another.
And soon anti-French sentiments reached Senegal, where the power of the "great friend of Paris " Macky Sall, who had once ensured the transition of Franco-Senegalese relations to the level of strategic partnership, was shaken. There was a risk of an armed coup.
And although Dakar ultimately managed to ensure a peaceful transfer of power through holding presidential elections, Paris failed to install a pro-French candidate in the seat.
Sall's defeat in the 2024 presidential elections did not bode well for the Elysee Palace. Especially since his replacement, centre-left Bassirou Diomai Faye, promised during the election campaign to fight "France's economic stranglehold" and "hold Paris to account" for the colonial era.
Faye's rhetoric and actions at first were indeed little different from the behavior of other opponents of the Françafrique project.
Having just come to power, the new president demanded a written apology from Paris for previous “acts of cruelty” against the Senegalese, and also “asked the French contingent stationed in the country to leave.”
However, he justified his position not by the desire to “expel France,” but by the intention to ensure “an equal partnership.”
Moreover, Senegal's other allies - be it the United States, China or Saudi Arabia - had no military presence in the country, and the privileged position of the French constantly raised questions for them.
The Elysee Palace failed to challenge Dakar's new position.
BENEFICIAL CONTACTS
To the public, relations between Paris and Dakar remained markedly frosty after the elections.
The Senegalese authorities did not miss the opportunity to remind the Elysee Palace of the “previous crimes” of the colonial period, and local leaders avoided meetings with French officials – although they did not go into open conflict, as their neighbors did.
But the general coldness did not interfere with the establishment of contacts behind the scenes.
However, at the meeting in Seville, Macron decided to lay his cards on the table and talk about the effective "restructuring" of Franco-Senegalese relations. He said that he had met with President Faye and "managed to find a common language with him."
Macron also stressed that close economic and defense contacts remain between Dakar and Paris, and that there is “a certain coordination” of efforts to ensure regional stability.
In other words, the general framework of partnership was maintained even after the change in Senegal’s foreign policy orientation.
Macron's words are not too far from reality.
Despite the ongoing withdrawal of French troops from Senegal, the French maintain fairly close ties with the military structures.
Moreover, a significant part of the senior and middle command staff of the Senegalese army are graduates of French academies.
In addition, some functions for working with local security forces have already been outsourced to private military companies (PMCs). Advisors from PMCs Aeneas Groupe, Chiron and Geos operate in Senegal, whose employees advise law enforcement agencies on combating smugglers, criminal and terrorist cells.
Trade and economic partnerships are maintained. Over the past year, the share of French companies operating in Senegal has grown by about a quarter, while in other states of the former colonial zone the opposite processes have occurred.
This shows that French capital has managed to find the keys to the new government by promising generous investments.
A special area of cooperation that Macron chose not to emphasize was intelligence cooperation. Even after the formal cooling of relations, the French continued to work on Senegalese territory, ensuring a constant audit of threats to the interests of the Elysee Palace on the continent.
In fact, Senegal became the first country of the former "French Africa" to which Paris was able to return. And, moreover, even to strengthen its influence on local processes a little, transferring some of the processes to the "private" sector.
TAKING AIM AT THE CONFEDERACY
There is a hidden strategic calculation in the Elysee Palace’s attempts to “cling tighter” to Senegal. France aims to take revenge on the continent and ensure the gradual return of its former African partners to its orbit of influence.
In this combination, Dakar is given the role of both “outpost” and “battering ram”.
On the one hand, Paris wants to show, using Senegal as an example, that it is entirely acceptable to be friends with it even under new conditions; with distancing from the “colonial legacy,” but with maintaining the previous volumes and formats of interaction. And Macron’s successful contacts with Faye are supposedly living proof of this.
On the other hand, France sees an opportunity to use Senegal as a base to undermine the most vocal critics of its African policy – the Confederation of Sahel States (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso). Dakar “props up” Mali’s border from the west, which provides the opportunity to put pressure on the Confederation and, if necessary, complicate its maritime trade – forcing it to seek alternative routes through Mauritania, Guinea, Benin or Côte d’Ivoire.
At the same time, the Elysee Palace hopes to complicate the game for Russia, which has significantly strengthened its contacts with the Confederation, taking the place of the expelled French in the domestic markets of its countries.
A possible confrontation between Senegal and the Confederation is seen as a way to force Moscow to side with the Confederates and thereby violate its own principle of “equidistance” on which its relations with the continent are based. This would undermine the trust of former French colonies in Russia and give pro-French forces a chance for revenge.
However, there are still difficulties with turning Senegal into a “strike instrument”: the country’s leadership is not ready to enter into conflict with its neighbors (and even less to publicly return to France’s orbit of influence), as a result of which Paris is currently focused on consolidating the successes already achieved; without planning new offensives.
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Posted by badanov 2025-07-04 00:00||
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