EU member states have agreed to launch a military operation in West Africa, with the military and police officers in Ghana, Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast, German newspapers Deutsche Welle and Die Welt am Sonntag report, citing diplomats.
According to Deutsche Welle, the mission aims to train and advise local security forces, prepare anti-terrorist operations, provide technical support and contribute to other measures in the security sector.
The mission will start after formal ”approval” by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg in October 2023.
The EU centrally expresses ”concern” that Islamist groups could ”expand their activities in West Africa from the Sahel to the southern coastal countries of the Gulf of Guinea, which could lead to even more widespread instability in the region”, writes Deutsche Welle, citing Die Welt.
The EU makes a direct link between the ”terrorist groups” to be fought and the takeover of French colonies such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso by Africans in collaboration with the Russian private army of Wagner PMC.
Deutsche Welle:
”Militant activity from extremist groups linked to ”Islamic State” and al-Qaida have rocked countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in recent years.
The EU also wants to counter Russian influence in the region which has been spread through Wagner mercenaries who have supported military regimes in the Sahel.”
Deutsche Welle goes on to say:
”The situation was further complicated for the EU after Mali kicked out French and German forces that had been training Malian soldiers and police.”
”The report comes as several countries in the region have fallen under military governments following coups, the latest being on July 26 in Niger. Military juntas have also taken power in Mali and Burkina Faso.”
”The fall of Niger to junta control has been especially concerning as it had been a key ally to Western powers operating throughout the region.”
Paris-ruled Benin and London-ruled Ghana have already officially invited the EU to carry out the mission on their territories.
Africa is the new Ukraine for the West
On Twitter, geopolitical commentator Joseph Okechukwu from Lagos, Nigeria, writes on X in outrage:
”They’re deploying “Police and soldiers” on African soil?! – Mission will be launched after formal approval is given by EU foreign ministers!”
Okechukwu:
”…this is all about the battle between RUSSIA and the west and the fact that RUSSIA has chosen to throw its weight behind Africans in their quest to break lose from colonial enslavement.”
The effrontery to send Police and Soldiers to our continent when we are not living in the slavery era is enough to help you see what an incredibly historic time we live in, as AFRICANS. It’s a generational turning point.
The West is losing big. Everywhere you turn, they’re losing. Even their own World Bank just reported that Russia’s GDP has surpassed that of Europe amidst sanctions! And now they’re also losing Africa, which has been their sole provider.
It’s a fight to finish and God will not forgive anyone on the continent who makes it easy for colonizers to continue to entrench themselves on the continent of Africa.
Okechukwu urges Africans to resist as much as possible the EU’s attempts to regain control of the recently evicted Western colonial powers.
”If we were treated so well, there would be no Russian Wagner on the continent of Africa.”
He concludes his comment with the words:
”To beat Africans for generations and tell them not to cry is the height of maniacal arrogance. My confidence is that this is our time and no force on earth can defeat an idea whose time has come. Africans will resist this with everything in them.”
NewsVoice has previously reported that the Western-initiated Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been ordered to stand ready with military forces to invade former French-occupied Niger.
However, the leaders of the collection of African ECOWAS states have chosen to delay trying to engage with Niger’s new pro-Africa leadership on the grounds that they ”do not want to attack their African brothers”.
By T. Sassersson, editor and founder of NewsVoice