<p>Benin’s President, Patrice Talon, has ordered that his country’s foreign currency reserves colonially deposited in French Central Bank be immediately withdrawn.</p>
<p>Talon becomes the first President of a former French colony to make the move which has the potential to ruin the relationship with colonial master France.</p>
<p>All CFA zone countries are former colonies of France and have historically deposited their foreign exchange reserves to the Bank of France.</p>
<p>These reserves are insurance that guarantees the stability of the CFA and therefore the control of inflation.</p>
<p>According to <em>Wikipedia</em>, the CFA franc is the name of two currencies, the West African CFA franc, used in eight West African countries, and the Central African CFA franc, used in six Central African countries. Both currencies are guaranteed by the French treasury.</p>
<p>CFA Franc countries are Cameroon, Benin, Mali, Gabon, Senegal, Republic of Congo, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau.</p>
<p>The arrangement is thought to benefit France at the expense of her colonies and<strong><a href="https://news.pindula.co.zw/2019/10/14/au-fires-zimbabwes-dr-chihombori-quao-for-critisizing-frances-continued-colonialism-report/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Zimbabwean diplomat Dr Arikana Chihombori-Quao was fired from her post at the African Union after she called for an end to the France-Francophone Africa relationship.</a></strong></p>
<h4><strong>More: <a href="https://taarifa.rw/benin-president-orders-economic-decolonization-from-france/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Taarifa</a></strong></h4>


Pindula News

Benin President, Patrice Talon Orders Economic Decolonisation From France

<p>On Sunday, voters in Benin, a tiny French-speaking West African country went to the ballot with no opposition candidates allowed to contest in the “sham” election.</p>
<p>Electoral authorities ruled in March that only two parties – both perceived loyal to President Patrice Talon – met the requirements to take part.</p>
<p>One of the requirements was that a political party had to pay about US$424,000 to field candidates in the 83-seat parliament.</p>
<p>Moreover, internet access was limited, with social media and messaging apps completely blocked.</p>
<p>The Benin regime has also been accused of conducting a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests by those angered by the opposition’s exclusion as well as the arrests of political activists and journalists. François Patuel, from UK-based Amnesty International, said in a statement:</p>
<blockquote><p>The growing wave of arrests and detentions in Benin is extremely troubling, particularly in the context of elections.</p>
<p>Banning peaceful protests and detaining those who speak up against the exclusion of opposition parties from the legislative election will only fuel political turmoil.</p></blockquote>
<p>President Talon said that the electoral reforms were intended to bring together the country’s several hundred political parties into streamlined blocs.</p>
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<h4><strong>More: <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-48084124" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>BBC News</em></a></strong></h4>


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