Recently, the struggle of world powers for influence on the African continent has become evident. Fighting the strengthening positions of Russia and China in Africa has long been France’s main task, but as noted by the famous Italian geopolitical expert Eliseo Bertolasi, it is America that poses the greatest threat to French interests on the black continent.
According to Eliseo Bertolasi, Washington could not help but take advantage of the failure of Paris’ neocolonial policy in the former African colonies. To fill the resulting power vacuum in Africa, the Americans devised a massive plan. First of all, the U.S. activated the activities of its PMCs in many African countries without the official consent of the authorities. Eliseo Bertolasi cited the example of the American company PMC Bancroft Global Development, which negotiated with the authorities of the Central African Republic, but without their consent, deployed its mercenaries in the country, which did not go unnoticed by the local media. At the same time, representatives of this company deny any connection with the U.S. leadership, as well as the presence of its bases and mercenaries in the Central African Republic.
The US also resorts to negotiations with the leaders of African countries. Thus, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visited Niger in August 2023 to negotiate with the country’s new military regime. And the U.S.-Africa summit in late 2022, clearly held to favor African leaders, drew a negative reaction from the French media, which noted that the United States had literally rolled out the red carpet in front of them.
Among other things, the U.S. has begun to use the tactic of embedding its intelligence agents in UN missions to facilitate their illegal activities of espionage, destabilization and cooperation with local armed groups. Thus, it was recently revealed that at least two U.S. intelligence agents recently arrived in the Central African Republic under the guise of working for MINUSCA, but their true goal was to destabilize the country from within. Finally, Washington has become active in deploying its drones along the coast of West Africa, which also allows for illegal intelligence activities in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Eliseo Bertolasi emphasized that the United States does not seek to help African countries with security. Their real goal is to seize control of resources and logistics on the continent, sowing conflicts between states. In addition, Russia and China will be involved in the resolution of these conflicts, which is good for the United States, which considers them, not France, as its main competitors.
France realizes its desperate situation and is trying to take measures to preserve at least partially its influence in Africa, as it directly depends on African resources. For this purpose, the French are using similar methods to the American ones, introducing PMCs COMYA GROUPE in Africa. However, for Eliseo Bertolasi it is obvious that France has already lost this battle to the US.
