The anti-Gaddafi coalition, very white, very Western. Forgotten Africa. Danger !

(BRUXELLES2) There are family photos that are politically deadly. Take a good look at the group photo of the London conference on Libya, broadcast by the foreign office. And you can see some absences in the photo: first of all that of Alain Juppé, surprising, and even that of Cathy Ashton (the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs). Conversely, the Secretary General of NATO is clearly present in the foreground and the representative of the Vatican (!) in the back row. But that is not what seems interesting to me to comment on today. There is more worrying, for a sensible meeting to discuss Libya's political future. In this photo... no Africans and very few Arabs...

The coalition is struggling to convince the south...

As in Paris (even more so), Africans have been forgotten. And, even in the Arab camp, participation was in the minority. Some participating countries had chosen to be represented only at the level of their ambassador (Kuwait, Lebanon, Tunisia, Arab League). As for those who were present at ministerial rank (Qatar, United Arab Emirates, etc.), we still cannot say that they represent the entire Arab world. It is also symptomatic that none of Libya's neighbors was present (with the exception of Tunisia represented by its ambassador). Neither Algeria, nor Niger, Chad (hostile to military intervention) or even Egypt were present. Finally, neither the African Union as such, nor a few representative countries of the black continent, were present. This is starting to do a lot!

Attention danger ! The African Union and Forgotten Africa

We seem to forget it. But Libya is in Africa (rather than the Gulf). And African reluctance should be taken into account more. The African Union - although invited - was absent from the Paris summit. The AU (*) then came out against the intervention, even sending a mission of good offices (composed of the presidents of Mauritania, Mali, Congo, Uganda and South Africa). Leaders - who cannot be considered Gaddafi's best friends - such as the Ugandan Museveni or the South African Zuma - have also criticized an operation which is beginning too much to resemble a Western coalition, very white, largely Christian, North versus South. This poses, today, a real and serious political problem for the coalition. And Gaddafi has marked a point there, in international politics: to reposition himself as the defender of the South. The photo of London is the shining proof...

It is important to renew the link with Africans. And it should be up to the European Union to take this initiative on a continent where, year after year, China advances its pawns, its banks, its counters, its companies and gains major political weight.

(*) Libya is one of the co-founders of the African Union, proclaimed in Sirte, the birthplace of Gaddafi, in March 2001.