Kenya will host the 2026 France–Africa Summit, the first to be held in an English-speaking African country. Activists, political observers, and analysts view the summit as part of France’s broader attempt to reconfigure its influence and strategic interests in Africa at a time when the Sahel is increasingly slipping from its traditional sphere of control.

A plot to kill Burkina Faso’s president, Ibrahim Traoré, and disable a drone base, ahead of a planned foreign military intervention, was thwarted by security forces, while Burkinabes took to the streets sloganeering in support of Traoré.

The severing of ties to the France-led judicial council, announced on December 15 as part of Burkina Faso’s broader break from Françafrique.

The recent formation of the Alliance of Sahel States is further proof of the consolidation of anti-French sentiment in the region. Philippe Toyo Noudjenoume, President of the West Africa Peoples’ Organization, says that this sentiment is especially strong in the Sahel region but is common throughout French-speaking Africa

Military officers ousted President Ali Bongo on August 30, just minutes after Gabon’s national electoral body proclaimed the incumbent as the winner of the August 26 general elections. Bongo was placed under house arrest as hundreds of people took to the streets in Libreville to celebrate the ouster of a family that has ruled Gabon for 56 years

The West Africa Peoples Organisation has welcomed the proposal for greater collaboration between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea, and has called for coordinating and planning production, trade, infrastructure, economic development, and defense

Anti-French sentiment has increasingly been on the rise across the Sahel and North Africa due to its role in destabilizing the region with military interventions

El sentimiento antifrancés ha aumentado en el Sahel y el norte de África debido a su papel en la desestabilización de la región con intervenciones militares.