A video went viral on social media platforms on October 3, outlining how the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigerian police force shot a young man, dumped him at the side of the road and stole his car. What followed was three weeks of protests by young people against such police brutality and the corruption that defines the state; initially via social media, #EndSARS, and later in towns and cities across Nigeria.

During these protests the Nigerian state used various tactics to either suppress the protests or to try and demobilise them through insincere “concessions”. To begin with, the ruling class, the state it controls and its head, President Muhammadu Buhari, attempted to quell the protests through window dressing. Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu promised on October 11 that the SARS unit would be disbanded and supposedly replaced with a new unit called SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics). This was an obvious lie, as the same personnel that formed part of SARS would form part of SWAT. Over the last several years the government has made similar announcements resulting in no actual change.

Needless to say, the protests continued and grew into the largest in the history of Nigeria. As the protests grew, the state changed tactics and responded to the escalation with outright violence. Part of this involved the state deploying thugs to attack protestors in order to try and intimidate people off the streets. When this failed to produce the state’s desired result, it deployed the military and implemented a curfew in a number of cities. By October 20, however, the protests had spread across Nigeria. Some of the assets of the Nigerian ruling class were also targeted during these protests and the largest and most lucrative toll road in country, Lekki, in Lagos, was blockaded. On that day the military attempted to brutally end the protests and shot dead 12 people at the Lekki tollgate.

Finie la Françafrique ? Décidément non et, malgré les beaux discours de Hollande, sur cette question comme sur tant d'autres, le PS et l'UMP, c'est bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet.

« La France n'a aucun intérêt au Mali, a déclaré François Hollande à la presse le 16 janvier. Elle est seulement au service de la paix. » Tiens donc ? La France n'a aucun intérêt dans la zone sahélienne ? Même pas les mines d'uranium du Niger, exploitées par Areva pour approvisionner les centrales nucléaires françaises ?

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Voir aussi:

• Ο πόλεμος στο Μάλι [English]

La partie est finie pour Laurent Gbagbo. Le président de Côte d’Ivoire va devoir céder la place à Alassane Ouattara, soutenu par les Forces nouvelles (rebaptisées « Forces républicaines de Côte d’Ivoire »), par les forces de l’Onu et par l’armée française – la fameuse force Licorne – entrées en scène à l’acte final.

Il est très difficile de savoir lequel des deux candidats avait recueilli le plus de voix lors du scrutin présidentiel du 28 novembre 2010, vu l’importance des fraudes de part et d’autres. Mais cela importe peu : les puissances étrangères avaient de toutes façons choisi Alassane Ouattara.

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Review of a book is written by two members of the Awareness League, an anarcho-syndicalist organisation in Nigeria