No to the war in Niger, French troops out of Africa!

We reproduce the editorial of the newspaper Révolutionnaires, of the French NPA, posted on 7 August 2023.

He 26 of July, The elite corps of the presidential guard deposed former president Mohamed Bazoum. Today, on the side of the French government and its allies who govern neighboring West African countries, we hear the sound of boots, a threat of military intervention. Why, even if the working people of Niger have nothing good to expect from the military coup, This disrupts the interests of the former French colonial power. Like the recent overthrows of other governments pandering to Paris' business interests, in Malí and Burkina Faso, This change reveals much more about the palace revolutions. But the French government, groups like Bouygues, Total in Orano (ex Areva) they want power at their feet.

A disastrous record

Niger with its 25 million inhabitants is a rich country populated by poor people. The mineral wealth is immense (including uranium) with a 47% of its population living in absolute poverty, just a 11% access health services and 7% I would live in slavery. This is the result of the balance of thedevelopment aid from Paris, the new name of France's indirect domination over this former colony. On the one hand, dispossession, widespread corruption, looting (Oran, The French uranium mine operator left twenty million tons of radioactive waste exposed). For the other, misery for the majority.

An unbearable presence

Thus, It is not surprising that part of the population of the capital Niamey demonstrated for the departure of the French presence. For Macron and the French bosses, emergency evacuation near 500 french citizens, the military junta's request for the 1.500 soldiers defending the tricolor multinationals opened an unprecedented crisis. After Mali and Burkina Faso, This third setback for the colonial ambitions of soldier Macron calls into question the presence of the capitalists of Paris and their plunder in this region of the Sahel.

Far from an anticolonial revolution

It is true that the new junta that reigns in Niamey has as its only program the end of the French military presence, a limited anti-colonialism that does not affect the interests of French companies and remains silent on the presence of another military base, that of the United States. This group of officers, like those of Mali and Burkina Faso, tries to play with the rivalries between imperialist powers: between France, The United States and those who already point their noses, Russia already on the military level, China in the economic field. Putin, which held its “summit” in St. Petersburg with African countries, pledged its wheat reserves. Until now, Africa has seen above all its Wagner militias.

The dangers that threaten the exploited in Niger and the region

At the time we write, We still do not know if the threats from the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, and the military ultimatum of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led by Nigeria, that just expired, will end in a military intervention, that it will not be for democracy or respect for the constitution as Macron will say, but for uranium. But the press is already highlighting the risks of this leading to a generalized war across the Sahel., with internal crises as illustrated by the parliamentary opposition in Nigeria against the intervention.

Therefore, all our solidarity is directed to the poor populations, to the working people of the cities and countryside of Niger and the region, who suffer plunder and misery, clashes between local clans competing for power, but also and above all military operations, directly or through interposed African troops, of the great predatory powers of Africa. France, to the head. They have nothing to expect from leaders or military chiefs who proclaim themselves “saviors of the nation.”. It is the unity of workers on a continent-wide scale that will be able to open a path to escape domination and build another future.. We share your revolt against the colonial plunder that continues, and above all the domination of French imperialism and its patrons over an entire part of the African continent.

• French troops out of Africa!
• No to military intervention!