The ousted junta leader, [Paul-Henri Sandaogo] Damiba, was widely seen as too closely linked to France. Late Saturday, there were protests outside the French embassy in Ouagadougou and the French Institute in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. Video on social media showed residents with lit torches outside the French embassy, and other images showed part of the compound ablaze. The crowds also vandalised the French Institute.
[Paul-Henri Sandaogo] Damiba is a highly trained soldier, thanks in no small part to the U.S. military, which has a long record of training soldiers in Africa who go on to stage coups. Damiba, it turns out, participated in at least a half-dozen U.S. training exercises, according to U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM.
With Russia and China increasingly assertive and influential worldwide, Washington recently rolled out its gambit to maintain global hegemony and gather former colonies and neo-colonies under its wing: the Global Fragility Act (GFA).
Aug 15, 2022 – Didier Gondola, Professor of African History at Johns Hopkins University and Professor Teylama Miabey, President of the National Congress For Democracy join me to discuss HR7311
A debate on March 2* over a resolution to essentially condemn and apportion exclusive blame on Moscow for the current military situation, was voted on by 141 UN representatives out of 191. 35 countries abstained from the vote including 17 member-states of the African Union (AU). Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Togo, Eswatini and Morocco were absent. Algeria, Uganda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Mali, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville, Sudan, South Sudan, Madagascar, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa abstained on the resolution.
“Despite the mining boom in the bauxite sector, we have to admit that the expected revenues are below expectations, and you and we cannot continue this game of fools that perpetuates great inequality in our relations” Doumbouya said.
The issue of countries earning less from their resources cuts across Africa. In some cases, the nation earns less than 40% of its own resources whilst the multinationals walk away with the big cuts. Do you think all other African countries should emulate this approach?
Colonel Assimi Goïta, who leads the military junta, said that the agreement with the French “brought neither peace, nor security, nor reconciliation” and that the population aspires “to stop the flow of Malian blood”
These forces must unite to overturn the war program of the White House and Pentagon which only robs the people of their rights to decent housing, education, food, water, environmental justice and all other necessities of modern life. A new foreign policy must be developed which defunds the defense department and dismantles the U.S. bases which are waging war around the globe.
The United States openly seeks to dominate the world. This becomes difficult as China’s economic power grows while the United States stagnates. The Chinese developed trade relationships with many nations in Africa, a region the United States considers part of its empire. The United States created an Africa Command after the Cold war ended and now maintains dozens of small bases and thousands of troops on the continent. The president of Guinea, Alpha Conde, developed close relations with China and profitable trade deals. China is Guinea’s chief customer for its principal export — bauxite, which used to produce aluminum. China imports half of Guinea’s production that provides half of the world’s aluminum. China provided funds to improve Guinean hospitals and infrastructure to ensure good relations. This friendship upset the United States, so President Conde was ousted in a 2021 coup.
In the era of rising multi-polarity, the imperialists seek to divide the globe into two worlds: the one where the NATO bloc’s “democracy” holds sway, and the one where China and Russia’s “authoritarianism” is in control. It doesn’t matter that the U.S. provides military assistance to three-fourths of the world’s dictatorships. Or that Washington is complicit in backing the atrocities of Nazi-aligned “democratic” regimes like the ones in Ukraine and Colombia. Or that the U.S. has the world’s worst prison system for human rights, an increasingly militarized and deadly police state, and a “democracy” which is a corporate-run farce. This idea that Washington leads the “free world” must be uncritically accepted, just like during the previous cold war.
The coup in Guinea was backed by the United States, in its unending imperialist war drive as the new Cold War spreads in Africa. Washington’s goal? Move China out of the mining business. Kambale Musavuli, activist, writer, and analyst with the Center for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa, explains.
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