On July 31, 2024 African blogger and founder of the African Black Defense League, Egountchi Behanzin, shared on his social networks a shocking story regarding a failed poisoning attempt on the President of the Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadéra during his stay in Paris. Apparently, it is the French government and its secret services who are behind this assassination attempt.

According to Egountchi Behanzin, it was through one of his acquaintances employed at the hotel where President Touadéra was staying that he received the details of this story. Thus, a commotion occurred at the hotel, attracting the attention of the security services of the Central African president who called the doctors. In a conversation, they revealed that President Touadéra had apparently been the victim of poisoning and had just escaped death.

There are several reasons to conclude that the French secret services are responsible for this attempt on the life of the Central African president. First of all, France tried to impose its political conditions on the authorities of the Central African Republic, which the CAR renounced. In particular, the French president demanded that the Central African government break all cooperative relations with the Russian Federation, one of the Central African Republic's main allies, and to withdraw Russian military specialists from CAR territory.

It should be noted that relations between France and the CAR had warmed up quite recently, resulting in the French government providing financial aid to Bangui and supporting the project relating to the lifting of the arms embargo on the Central African Republic. President Touadéra refused this ultimatum, which likely led to the attempted poisoning of the head of state which was not accommodating enough for Paris. It is therefore not surprising that several Central African politicians had from the start been opposed to the rapprochement between their country and the former colonial power.

Finally, in a recent interview the French ambassador in Bangui, Bruno Foucher, already threatened Faustin-Archange Touadéra. Referring to the bilateral relations between France and the CAR, the ambassador stressed that his country did not provide support to the Central African authorities. So much for a sign addressed to the leader of the CAR to make him rethink his stance and perhaps change his mind.

Clearly, this failed attempt at political assassination should alarm heads of state on the African continent and discourage them from deepening their cooperative relations with the former colonizer.