Free article preview  

Paris' African veterans are winning support for new plans to intervene in the continent's wars

Africa needs peacekeepers more than ever just now. France has abandoned its post-colonial policies in West Africa, and has launched a new kind of military-backed diplomacy. The result is Recamp, the Renforcement des Capacités Africaines de Maintien de la Paix, which has just completed its first big meeting in non-French-speaking southern Africa. Last week (8-10 May) in Dar es Salaam 130 military officers and diplomats from 15 African countries, and 20 non-African partners, met for a seminar to prepare Tanzanite 2000-2002, the Recamp exercise due in Tanzania next February (AC Vol 42 No 9). France's diplomatic fortunes in Africa are reviving. After the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, the coup d'etat in Côte d'Ivoire in 1999, French diplomats are regaining influence in Central and West Africa. Last month's United Nations report on the pillage of Congo-Kinshasa's minerals and calls for sanctions against Rwanda and Uganda (AC Vol 42 No 9) echoed President Jacques Chirac's views on the rebel war and its beneficiaries. Paris has also been strongly backing President Joseph Kabila's new government in Kinshasa; we hear the Elyseé also favours (and is winning support for) the replacement of Congo mediator, Quett Masire, with a Francophone, perhaps Gabon's Omar Bongo....

(This article contains approximately 1286 words)

end of free article preview

Current subscribers: log in now to read the complete article. Misplaced your password? Then click here for a password reminder.

Not a subscriber? Then you can read this article in full either by becoming a subscriber now, for 3, 6 or 12 months, or you can buy this individual article.

  • Subscribe to Africa Confidential:
  • Buy this article:
  • 3-month subscription
    Prices from £205.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
    6-month subscription
    Prices from £376.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
    12-month subscription
    Prices from £705.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
  • UK & European Union
    £17.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
    Rest of the world
    $27.00

  • If you have a print subscription already, click here for a password that gives you full access to the website.
  • If you are logged in, but still cannot access the full text of this article, email customer services or telephone us on +44(0)1638 743633.

Keywords:

Tanzania, Rwanda, Mobutu Sese Seko, Côte d'Ivoire, Congo-Kinshasa, Uganda, Jacques Chirac, Joseph Kabila, Quett Masire, Gabon, Omar Bongo, United States, Britain, Tackling crises in West Africa, Senegal, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Cheikh Oumar Diarra, Nigeria, Peter Chaveas, Benjamin, Mkapa, Salim Ahmed Salim, Dmitry Titov, Lakhdar Brahimi, Algerian, Kofi Annan, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Chad, Togo, Central African Republic, Mauritanian, Moroccan, Congo-Brazzaville, Jean-Pierre Kelche, Alain Juppé, Lionel Jospin, Guy Azaïs, Benin, Colombia, Former colonial powers contribute, Portugal, Angolan, Mozambican, Javier Solana, Spain, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean, Namibian, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Jakaya Kikwete, Renforcement des Capacités Africaines de Maintien de la Paix, Elyseé, Mission Internationale de Surveillance des Accords de Bangui, Mission des nations Unies en République Centrafricaine, Opération Turquoise, Communauté Economique des Etats de l'Afrique Centrale