President Macron and rebellious Gabon
African countdown?
Today it is already quite obvious that the colonial legacy costs the French more and more every day. The military coup in ex-French Gabon, which took place the other day, is a chain reaction of the well-known events in Niger in August this year. And earlier, in 2020-2022. – in Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
These countries, we recall, not so long ago expelled French military bases from their territories. Moreover, they more than once turned to Russia with open requests to help in one way or another in the final liquidation of French neo-colonialism.
However, Gabon has always been - since its independence (since 1960) - the most stable French outpost in ex-French Equatorial Africa. In addition to Gabon, in the former French West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and the "former" Niger were traditionally openly pro-French.
However, since the beginning of the 2020s, Gabon has been trying to somehow “distance itself” from Paris by joining the pro-British Commonwealth in 2022. With the beginning of the NWO, Gabon, despite all the declarative, but rather decorative friendship with Paris, was one of the many who refused to support the anti-Russian sanctions of the West.
Most recently, at the end of July 2023, the now former Gabonese Prime Minister, Alain-Claude Bili-Bi-Nze, participated in the Russia-Africa interstate summit in St. Petersburg. And he held quite lengthy negotiations with Vladimir Putin there.
Not calm in Paris
But this did not help the French protege to stay in power... Just as the well-known project of the Trans-Gabon Trans-Siberian Railway did not help the current government and Paris, which is discussed below. Almost all over the country, the population now supports the new, that is, the military authorities.
And Paris immediately officially condemned the coup in Gabon, ordering the French troops in that country - their military bases near Libreville (the capital) and the main port (Port-Gentil) - to remain neutral for the time being. But the new Gabon authorities have already announced plans to revise the country's previous foreign policy agreements and priorities.
Do I need to explain that this is almost a direct threat to the military-political and economic positions of Paris in Gabon. But not so long ago, influence, or rather, full French control over Gabon seemed indefinite.
But in any case, France and, in fact, the "pro-French" ECOWAS are forced to postpone the intervention in Niger because of the events in Gabon.
Few people pay attention to how blatantly aggressive today is not even official Paris, but ECOWAS - in fact, just the economic community of West Africa.
Not a French "box"
Gabon itself is literally the resource box of Equatorial Africa. The country is included in the register of 10 African leading countries in terms of reserves of oil, gold, platinum, diamonds, uranium, iron, manganese ores, rare earth elements, and the most valuable tropical timber.
Excluding mainly coastal oil and gas resources, the deposits of these raw materials, like tropical forests, are located in the jungle - inland and near the borders with neighboring countries. But the development and export of these and other types of raw materials - including high-value red (mahogany) and logwood, the production of tropical and subtropical fruits, coffee, cocoa beans, palm oil - are controlled mainly by French business. As long as they control...
To accelerate raw material exports from Gabon in the early - mid-80s. of the last century, France financed more than 60% of the construction of the Transgabon Railway (TGRR) - 670 km. Moreover, at the commissioning of its two phases in 1974 and 1987, the then presidents of France were present together with the Gabonese authorities.
According to reports, the French side offered Gabon joint management of this highway - by analogy with the management of the only (until the mid-90s inclusive) railway in Ethiopia. The latter connected it since 1897 with the port of Djibouti in the former "French Somalia".
Also Djibouti?
Since June 1977, it has been the Republic of Djibouti, where French military bases are also preserved. With the overthrow of the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, this road in Ethiopia was nationalized by the military - the "pro-Soviet" Ethiopian authorities.
But in Gabon, which was ruled by politicians focusing exclusively on Paris, they still did not dare to strengthen the already significant presence of France in the country. So this highway remained under the control of Libreville.
But practically all railway and related equipment for this line is still imported from France. Moreover, the same road was periodically patrolled until recently from French military bases in Gabon.
In the meantime, in Paris, they planned to create a new military base in Gabon by the mid-90s - in Franceville, one of the terminal points of the TCRR near deposits of diamonds, gold and graphite. But the Gabonese authorities dissuaded Paris from the project of this base, because they did not want to unnecessarily demonstrate their "francophony".
In the country itself, the level of processing of its diverse natural resources - to this day - barely exceeds 15%. On the other hand, no less than 60% of the volume of total exports of raw materials by Gabon has long been sent to France.
Will the alignment so favorable for French business be preserved in the most resource-rich country of ex-French Equatorial Africa?
Hardly…
Information