Imperialist rivalry spurs conflict in W. Africa

A rebellion broke out in February 2007 in both Mali and Niger. French interests support the rebellion and the U.S. government supports the governments in place.

With French and U.S. interests maneuvering to gain control of the significant resources these desperately poor countries have, it is much more likely that the imperialists’ favorite tactic of “divide to rule” leads to armed violence as a method to resolve the legitimate interests of different groups in the population involved.

Niger and Mali are two of the poorest countries in the world. Niger ranks 174th out of 177 countries in the U.N.’s human development index, while Mali ranks 173rd. This index, which combines a number of factors, such as literacy rate, life expectancy, infant mortality, caloric intake and so on, is often used to compare living standards.

Niger and Mali, along with Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo were all part of France’s West African colonial empire, and became formally independent in the 1970s. French imperialism still maintains a solid neocolonial hold on them, with a few exceptions like Guinea, but France’s role is now being rivaled by U.S. imperialism with its new AFRICOM command.

Since 1997, the Pentagon has openly run a series of extensive and major military exercises every two years, called Operation Flintlock, with armies from West Africa in northern Mali. Mali, Niger and Senegal, along with Nigeria, have usually participated. (Le Monde Diplomatique, July 2004)

In September of 2007, according to Agence France Presse, a U.S. Air Force plane delivering supplies to a Malian army unit operating near Tinzaouatène in northern Mali came under fire. It was able to complete its mission and return to base.

Mali is so poor that a June 5 UNICEF report claimed that 300,000 children there suffer from malnutrition. In Niger, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization reported in 2005 that 3.5 million people out of 12 million were suffering from malnutrition after years of drought and a severe plague of locusts. Overall conditions in Niger have not improved much, but emergency food aid did relieve the threat of widespread famine.

Niger had a minor economic boom in the 1970s because it contains a majority of the world’s reserves of uranium, and nuclear power was taking off. In the 1980s and 1990s, when countries developed techniques of using fissionable material from decommissioned bombs, and nuclear power was not under active development, Niger’s income from uranium mining fell drastically.

But as the energy crisis heated up and, according to the World Nuclear Association, countries like Russia, India, Japan and China announced intentions to build 93 nuclear reactors in addition to the 34 currently under construction, the price of uranium soared.

Niger opened up vast areas of the northern regions of the country for new mines. There appear to be major deposits of uranium in Mali near some of the deposits in Niger, but they are not yet in production.

Niger also opened up some mining concessions to Chinese companies and encouraged them to prospect for oil, which they appear to have found in significant quantities.

These concessions given to the mining companies meant that many of the 300,000 people living in northern Niger—primarily but not exclusively from the Tuareg ethnic group—are being forced out of their homes. They are nomadic herders in a region that lies deep in the Sahara desert. While they grow some food on scattered oases, they get most of their income from selling salt, plus skins and meat from their flocks.

The people in northern Niger had been promised a significant share in the wealth this new burst of economic activity in their homeland was bringing, but it appears not much of the income generated was disbursed, at least not in the north.

The exact role the French-based energy companies played in the outbreak of the rebellion, which quickly spread to the people in a similar situation in northern Mali, isn’t clear. They did have a significant role in sustaining it. The motive of these companies is clear—they wanted to force Niger to dump their Chinese competitors.

One of the Niger army officers who went over to the rebels got 85,000 euros to provide security for Cogema, the French energy giant. (Le Monde Diplomatique, June 2008) Col. Gilles de Namur, head of security for Cogema, and Dominique Pin, the local president of the group, were expelled from Niger in June and July 2007 for the support they gave to the rebellion.