France’s aggressive diplomatic resistance to losing its colonial-era influence in West Africa is backfiring by inadvertently transforming military junta leaders into popular heroes.

According to Austin Aigbe, an advocacy officer at the West Africa Democracy Solidarity Network, Paris’s heavy-handed approach is providing military regimes with the perfect political leverage to consolidate domestic support. The warning follows Burkina Faso’s decision to completely sever diplomatic relations with Paris over allegations that France is backing subversive networks and terrorist groups, claims that France has repeatedly denied.

Aigbe argued that while military coups should not be celebrated, France is entirely responsible for driving public support straight into the arms of the juntas.

“France is making the Sahel state military leaders to become popular,” Aigbe pointed out. “France is the reason why people are beginning to think about ‘we truly agree with what Captain Traoré is saying.’ France needs to truly slow down and check and change the pattern.”

According to Aigbe, the formal severing of ties by Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s transitional government marks a point of no return for French diplomacy in the Sahel. Burkina Faso now joins Mali and Niger in completely fracturing institutional relations with Paris, effectively dismantling the historic “Françafrique” network of influence.

Aigbe noted that the fundamental flaw in French foreign policy remains an outdated, paternalistic approach to the continent. He recalled a recent summit in Kenya where French President Emmanuel Macron was bluntly told that the era of Western “development aid” is an illusion, and that Africa historically supports the French economy far more than Paris supports Africa.

–ChannelAfrica–