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US, France seek to prevent BRICS development in Africa: Analyst

Friday, 20 November 2015 6:49 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 20 November 2015 6:49 PM ]

Malian troops take position outside the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako on November 20, 2015. ©AFP

Press TV has interviewed Douglas Degroot, with the Africa desk at the Executive Intelligence Review in Virginia, to discuss the recent hostage crisis at a hotel in the Malian capital, Bamako.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: I am sure many people are wondering why Mali, why Bamako, why this hotel at this point?

Degroot: It seems to be part of a pattern, one could say, involving all the international events. You had the big bombing in Beirut, you had the Paris developments and so on, and this just makes things more difficult.

There is a big French and American connection according to this situation and it is part of, in the case of Africa, keeping Africa out of reach of the industrialization drive that is being pushed by the BRICS nations, who have set up alternatives to the IMF (the International Monetary Fund) and World Bank.

So the more unstable the entire continent and region could remain the more difficult it is for these kinds of necessary infrastructure developments to be taking place by alternative force, alternative to the Transatlantic banking system, which itself is bankrupt. So they are playing out these terrorist games to facilitate their drive to prevent this BRICS development, this is how I am looking at it.

Press TV: I am wondering do you think then as a consequence of such terrorist attacks, that France will remain more heavily involved in this former colony?

Degroot: I think that is their drive. They have been concerned for an extended period of time about the competition they have been receiving from Brazil and China in Africa, which they had always seen as their private preserve.

So this is making it difficult for both Brazil and China who are both part of the BRICS combination, of course. So that is their role. It is interesting to note that for example the President of Chad had announced few months back that all the Boko Haram people they captured…had French arms. So there seems to be more corroboration of that kind of indication that they are playing this role.

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