An official of the West African bloc of nations says 11 countries in the region have agreed to commit troops to a military deployment aimed at restoring Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup.
Yeah I’m active in African politics and have people in Africa who I regularly interact with and send remittances to. I’ve yet to interact with a single African person who thinks the actions of ECOWAS are in any way serving the needs of the African people. It’s very clearly viewed as ECOWAS attempting to re-assert neo-colonial control of the region. ECOWAS itself is likely facing a threat from the west, and feels like if they don’t intervene the west will. France and the US are very angry they no longer have their gigantic drone bases in Niger anymore, which were the gigantic drone bases in Burkina Faso before that, which were the bases in Mali before that. There’s a clear through-line here in all of these coups, and it’s western militaries setting up shop under the guise of fighting Islamic extremism.
Yeah I’m active in African politics and have people in Africa who I regularly interact with and send remittances to. I’ve yet to interact with a single African person who thinks the actions of ECOWAS are in any way serving the needs of the African people. It’s very clearly viewed as ECOWAS attempting to re-assert neo-colonial control of the region. ECOWAS itself is likely facing a threat from the west, and feels like if they don’t intervene the west will. France and the US are very angry they no longer have their gigantic drone bases in Niger anymore, which were the gigantic drone bases in Burkina Faso before that, which were the bases in Mali before that. There’s a clear through-line here in all of these coups, and it’s western militaries setting up shop under the guise of fighting Islamic extremism.