I watched with amazement the presence of the French President Emmanuel Macron at the funeral of the slain president of Chad, Idris Deby. This was on 20th April this year and indeed the French president looked like a man on a mission.
Macron has surpassed the visits by all European leaders to Africa, all of them combined. And clearly the French carbon footprint is clearly visible across the continent. Recently there has been a physical altercation between Francophone countries versus the Lusophone and the Anglophone countries at the AU Parliament in South Africa.
The fight was over the election of the president of this parliament, a position that is designed for rotation between the three divides of language. But the francophone countries are having none of that as they are doing everything to maintain the monopoly of this position and many others at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa.
This is the same office where a Chadian by the names of Moussa Faki runs the show as African Union Commission Chairman and the man is surely drifting the continent in the direction of France, the grand master. To the rest of the world, it may look like it is the Chinese that are wrestling for control of Africa. But it is France that is fighting to maintain and expand its influence.
Then we have seen Macron visit Rwanda this year to perform the unthinkable. The French president arrived in Kigali to render an official apology for the 1994 genocide. The French knew about the plan to annihilate the Tutsis and did nothing to interrupt it. Furthermore, they watched when the plan was executed. The French troops were in Rwanda in 1994 and they remained as bystanders.
Rwanda has always insisted on getting an apology for the role of passivity played by the French during the genocide. Because France was not bending to this demand, the Rwandese leadership started steering the country away from France and they began by adopting English as the official language. They are struggling with the new language but they are winning.
After rendering his apology, Macron was back in Rwanda within two weeks for another mission. The objective was to convince the Rwandese to participate in Mozambique in fighting the growing insurgency in the country.
And what particular interests do the French have in Mozambique? The answer lies in the multibillion investments by a multi-national French company known as Total. This company controls a very large stake in the gas exploration and processing in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
The French were so desperate to protect this investment and were prepared to do all in their power to achieve it. Total with an investment of over $25 billion is certainly one of those investments France is willing to go to war for and they were looking for a proxy to use in Africa.
On the third trip to Rwanda, Macron arriving with a host of diplomats and intelligence officers managed to secure a deal with Kigali. Rwanda has a military cooperation agreement with Mozambique. Though it is not the only country with such an arrangement, they are the most southerly French speaking country closest to Mozambique and France wanted to use them as proxies in the protection of French investments and assets.
While SADC was still getting everything in place to begin the deployment of a brigade size force in Mozambique, out of nowhere Rwanda landed its soldiers on the ground and operations against the insurgents began with what the Germans would refer to as blitzkrieg.
But why has SADC taken so long to deploy it 3 000 strong brigade in its own neighbourhood? While the heads of states were going forth and back and having meetings, the Mozambicans started growing cold feet on the deployment of foreign soldiers on their territory.
Some military and security analysts saw this slowdown by Mozambique as something that was giving the country a headache because the deployment of foreign troops on their soil while they have their own military would put them in bad light.
Behind the scenes SADC was doing everything they could to get the first boots on the ground. It is international practice that if foreign troops are deployed in another country, the host country has to reach an agreement with countries or country sending the troops. This agreement is commonly known with its acronym, SOFA. This stands for Status Of Foreign Force Agreement.
SOFA clearly outlines what the expectations of the host country are and it also states the clear parameters of the law for these foreign forces. It is clear that Rwanda has not signed any of that sort. The Rwandan military landed in Mozambique while SADC forces were still waiting for the host country to sign this document.
South Africa has sent in the biggest force as well as logistical support and this earned them the position of force commander. While the South Africans sent 500 troops, Rwanda exceeded the number by another 500 and making their force a strong 1 000 troops.
Technically this number gives Rwanda the rights to be in charge of the entire force deployed in Mozambique. Though Rwanda is not a member of SADC, the fact that they have a superior force gives them access to occupying a larger deployment area. That on its own has so much influence on the mission.
It is clear that France is footing the bill. They are providing all the logistical support to Rwanda. There is nothing wrong with what Rwanda is doing, but there is clearly something sinister that France is doing in Mozambique and the rest of Africa.
Why couldn’t France support the deployment of a SADC force if the real reason is to protect the investment of Total in Mozambique? France is looking for means to wedge herself into Mozambique beyond the current crisis. They have already achieved the control of most of west and central Africa.
The French are thrusting forward full throttle while French speaking countries are in control of almost all organs of the AU. DRC is currently chair of the organization while the Secretary General at the AU is in charge of all the day to day operations and the fellow is from French speaking Chad.
