Abstracts
p. 197-200
Texte intégral
1The return of Mercenaries to the Congo, 1964-1965
Roseline Amenan Kouamé
2In December 1964, the ex-Belgian Congo plunged once again into violence. In the Kwilu region and in the east of the country, a rebellion launched by supporters of Patrice Lumumba is advancing at high speed and threatening the capital Leopoldville. The Congolese national army (ANC) in the midst of reorganization has shown itself incapable of overcoming this rebellion. The Prime Minister is unable to find the necessary military aid from the country’s natural allies. He then turns to the mercenaries. The latter have already proven themselves in the secession of Katanga. The return puts mercenaries at the forefront of military operations in the country, making them appear to be an elite force. This paper presents the action of mercenaries in the Congo in the context of a civil war in the Congo. The intervention of the mercenaries, their ability to turn victory to their advantage, placed them well above the Congolese national army. An army whose weakness is the main cause of this mercenary return.
3The “behind” actors in the Biafra war: arms circulation, mercenary contracts and geopolitics
Walter Bruyère-Ostells
4The mercenaries were present in Biafra by the implementation by Foccart networks of a logistics chain serving the secession. Arms were supplied via Côte d’Ivoire or Gabon thanks to Maurice Robert, Maurice Delaunay or Philippe Letteron with SOGEXI. For transport, small companies belonging to Anglo-Saxons (Hank Wharton or Jack Malloch for example) used Sao Tome as the main hub. They notably embarked the men recruited in Europe in Portugal before taking them to Biafra. Mercenaries constituted their teams before leaving, while a second circle of trust issued from the Resistance took care of the purchase of planes. Pierre Laureys was thus able before the conflict to offer Colonel Ojukwu planes and combatants. When the French government wanted to disengage, the mercenaries came to the fore from 1968: Rolf Steiner in combat, Bob Denard for example for the supply more directly carried by the African States (Ivory Coast or Gabon).
5The independance of Djibouti under the military protection of France, 1977-1982
Abel Lobry Bagnon
6In the Horn of Africa threatened by deep instability, Somalia’s irredentist aspirations and Ethiopia’s claims to control Djibouti raise fears for the future of this new State. In this context, France deploys its Navy along the coast of Djibouti to ensure the integrity of this territory at the onset of its independence. France preserves its own interests and maintains a regional geostrategic balance. Thanks to the Technical Military Assistance, France is helping to defend the young State.
7The cuban army, a leading actor in the angolan conflict, 1975-1991
Yannick Moise Effoussou
8In November 1975, Cuba launched the largest military intervention in its history, sending nearly 3,000 men to Angola to defend its Marxist ally against the twin invasions of South African forces and UNITA troops in the South and forces FNLA in the North. This unprecedented event, which transformed Angola into one of the main fronts of the Cold War, will mark its particularity in the presence and the participation of regular troops of a South American national army, on African lands. Analyzes of the Angolan civil war (1975-2002) have tended to examine Cuba’s role in this country in a combined manner and even inseparable from that played by the USSR, or as subordinate to Soviet interests. From this postulate which we consider questionable, the object of this paper is therefore to explain why a Caribbean country has sent nearly half a million of its citizens to fight in Africa and to examine how a starting intervention being short-lived turned into a long intervention war, culminating in many Cuban deaths. In order to take the analysis under another look, our paper will examine the multidimensional character of the Angolan war, by analyzing how the interaction between the main protagonists has affected and shaped the Cuban intervention.
9Peace and security in Africa: new threats, new challenges
Yao Kouassi
10Since the end of the Cold War, Africa has experienced new conflicts and threats in a context of globalization which is transforming the continent considerably. Conflict is intensifying in new forms, threats are diversifying and increasing (terrorism, trafficking, piracy). African states and organizations, as well as international organizations and the major powers, are trying to set up common responses which remain insufficient to overcome these difficulties.
11From economic conflict to political confrontation: the case of franco-ivorian conflictual relationship from 2000 to 2004
Guessan Kouadio
12The present communication broadly analyzes the conflictual relationship that characterized the political and diplomatic relationship between France and Côte d’Ivoire from 2000 to 2004. The conflict, which began in 2000 when the socialist regime of Laurent Gbagbo challenged the economic, monetary and military cooperation agreements that had linked Côte d’Ivoire to France since 24 May 1961, intensified in November 2004 following a military confrontation between Ivorian and French forces, present on the Ivorian territory as part of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) since the outbreak of the armed rebellion in September 2002. This confrontation has accelerated the deterioration of Franco-Ivorian relations.
13The launch of operation licorne in Ivory Coast in 2002-2003: the start of a new period in France’s singular relationship with Africa?
Benoît Roux
14September 19, 2002: A political-military rebellion attempts to overthrow the Ivorian president. France stand militarily between the two opposing camps, then acts as a regulator. By chairing the signing of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement in Paris on January 2003, France supplantes the West African mediation which had been working for four months and relegates external actors to the background. The beginnings of French intervention in Côte d’Ivoire testify to France’s state of mind and action towards Africa. It notes that this decision marks the beginning of a new period in French foreign policy: that of military engagements in Africa on a scale unequalled in 50 years; and the generalisation of the model of the internationalisation of African crisis management with its search for allies or coalitions accompanied by the search for allies or coalition partners.
15Military past, militant journeys: the political continuation of the armed struggle by the separatists in Casamance
Mathilde Leyendecker and Sergiu Mişcoiu
16In this paper, we study some various trajectories of the ex-fighters of the Movement of the Democratic Forces in Casamance (MFDC) in southern Senegal, targeting especially the political engagement meant to continue the former armed struggle. The claim for independence is frequent in the post-MFDC fighters’public discourse and it takes a variety of shapes (from continuing in the local political life to transforming into agents of peacebuilding). This paper is about trying to understand the motivations of actors and contextualize them in order to identify the mechanisms that lead to long-term dialogue and conflict resolution.
17Political conditionality in relations between the EEC and the republic of South Africa, 1985-1986
Loukey Kouamé Yocoly
18With the intensification of repression against Black South Africans and the deterioration of human rights, the EEC does not remain indifferent during the period which is characterised by a wave of international sanctions against the Republic of South Africa. From 1985, following heated debates between foreign ministers of the EEC member countries, a political conditionality was introduced in the EEC-RSA economic relation. For the first time, precisely on the 10th of September 1985 in Luxemburg, this conditionality translates itself into the implementation of punitive and positive measures against the RSA. But it was not until 1986 in Brussels that the EEC countries unanimously harmonized their attitudes and adopted targeted measures against the RSA. This paper therefore aims to present and analyse these measures, which combine business and ethics in the relations between the EEC and the RSA, considered as an instrument to exert political pressure for the dismantling of the apartheid system.
19Globalization and development aid: developments in the EEC’s development cooperation policy in the 1980s
Guia Migani
20During the 1980s the relations between the EEC and the Third World change drastically. The EEC development policy evolves for taking into account the changes of the international system and the new priorities of the European Community. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the continuities and the innovations of the EEC development policy and what causes these changes. On the basis of EEC and French archives this chapter will explore how new issues emerging during the 1970s (such as the protection of the environment, the respect of human rights, and then the structural adjustment) are integrated in the European development policy, and how, during the 1980s, the EEC restructures its relations with the ACP (African Caribbean Pacific) countries because of the growing importance of the Asian and Latin-American countries.
21Africa’s traditional partnerships tested by the revitalization of its economic relations with emerging countries: the case of trade agreements between the European Union and Africa
Sabikou Moumouni
22Long perceived as the traditional domain of European powers, Africa has been the object of new interests since the beginning of the millennium, mainly of so-called emerging countries, whose economic-diplomatic activism contribute to the marginalization of European ones. If these countries’successes in Africa are primarily due to the dynamism of their own economies, at a time when many European countries were in recession due in particular to the 2008 Subprime crisis, it is mostly due to their cooperation strategies. Strategies which in many ways contrast with the European dogmas of development, model already called into question for its ineffectiveness due to the failure of the ACP-EU Lomé conventions. In the process of renewing its development cooperation policy, the EU means to reposition itself economically in Africa through the EPAs, part of the Cotonou framework.
23The external action of french local authorities in the service of european economic recovery: a questioning of development aid?
Lorraine Stravens
24Development cooperation and solidarity have long occupied a prominent place in French and European decentralised cooperation actions. The 2008 global economic crisis disrupted the economies of traditional development aid provider countries and marked a significant shift in the field of decentralised cooperation. In this context, where European economies struggled to bounce back, French local actors were, and are still called upon to show coherence and a common vision with the State for a “multiplied” diplomacy. This paper aims to demonstrate and analyse the ways in which local and regional authorities have gradually been put to task in order to revitalize European economic competitiveness, at the cost of solidarity, including towards their African historical partners.

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