Nigers interim president claims that France is backing armed groups in the Sahel through covert networks. The President accuses the West, mostly France. of fueling terrorist violence. Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry official Tatyana Dovgalenko accused Ukraine of funneling Western-supplied weapons to militants operating across Africa and training terrorist networks in the Sahel as part of “systematic efforts to destabilize the continent.”
That would explain the missing billions of dollars the Pentagon sent to Ukraine.
However, other reports say the majority of weapons found in terrorist hands are homemade, others are Russian, and some come from Libya and recently Turkey. Ukraine, Bulgaria, Iraq, and Poland before it joined the European Union have played an important role.
The concern of the US is that we are fueling it with weapons sent to Ukraine solely for Ukraine’s use.
The Western Color Revolutions?
Niger’s interim president, Abdourahamane Tchiani, has accused Western powers, particularly France, of fueling terrorist violence in the African country in an attempt to impose a “new model of governance” against the will of the Nigerian people.
The new regime says they have uncovered “several plots” against Niger from neighboring countries with the backing of Western governments. They kicked the West, including the US, out in 2023 after a military takeover. The nation now leans toward Russia.
Tchiani said Western-backed operatives have held meetings in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin to coordinate efforts, including smuggling weapons to terrorist groups.
“France has used several means to destabilize us… France has also infiltrated all the movements that were initially called independentist movements, then, the jihadist movement, and finally, terrorist movements,” he stated.
The Junta leader, a former UN peacekeeper, said Paris has established “French cells” in the region, one led by Jean-Marie Bockel, President Emmanuel Macron’s personal envoy for Africa, tasked with countering “Sahelian influence.”
Footnote:
In 2022, Nigeria’s President Bukhari expressed deep concerns about US weapons from Ukraine falling into terrorists’ hands. Ukraine is a corrupt country with an aggressive black market.
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Soon after Biden began supplying arms to Ukraine the president of Nigeria warned that many of these weapons were being sold on the black market to terrorists in Africa.
If there is one thing we can count on it is that Russia will lie, make unproveable claims against the US to sew disaffection and turn opinion against us. Anything to distract from their actions.