France-Niger Relations

🇫🇷🇳🇪 The journalist of the article posted below, Nabila Ramdani, calls herself French, but she holds a very negative opinion of her homeland. It's bordering on hatred. The saddest part of her take on the coup in Niger is that she is helping to spread the propaganda that will lead to severe setbacks for the country. Her glee for what she perceives as a blow to France is disheartening. This coup d'état is a serious blow to Niger and West Africa, not to France. It's a regression from democracy for Niger, and it will bring so much instability to the country and region.

It is true that Niger has uranium, but no one is dependent on Niger for uranium. There are numerous other uranium sources in the world for France and other countries to meet their uranium needs. Specifically our friendly allies Australia and Canada are much bigger producers of uranium, and it's a much higher grade. Australia has the largest uranium reserves in the world. Additionally nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants can be recycled, although we don't currently do that, it is possible to recycle the waste and reuse it. So there will never be a shortage of uranium for nuclear energy, even if Niger stopped producing it. Neither France nor the USA are dependent on Niger for uranium. This is of course why France and some Americans support nuclear energy as the best carbon-free energy source - nuclear energy doesn't create any dependencies on potentially hostile countries. This turn of events demonstrates just how quickly a friendly country can turn into a hostile country in some parts of the world.

Both France and the USA have military bases in Niger that are focused on fighting Boko Haram, which is terrorising West Africa. West Africans suffer from thousands of terrorist attacks every year, more than any other place in the world. It is causing severe suffering to the people of West Africa. The governments of West Africa have turned to the USA and France for assistance in ending these terrorist activities. The USA recently built several military bases in Niger to provide the security architecture that we need to help secure these countries. US law, however, specifies that the USA can not provide any military assistance to any military coups, which means we will have to destroy this military infrastructure and leave if the coup remains in power.

This highlights the reasons why it is so difficult for us to help Africa. Because of the government instability, it is extremely difficult for us to create the security architecture they need, and private investors will never invest in these countries without security and stability.

Both the USA and France wants to help Niger, West Africa and the rest of the African continent. We understand that these countries can not grow and prosper without security and stability. We are trying to help them achieve the security and stability that they desperately need to build thriving economies.

Yes, these countries were once French colonies, and so was the USA. I believe France is committed to helping these countries because of that.

xo

Response to: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/05/niger-crisis-france-empire-africa-coup-colony