France’s colonial empire covered much of North and West Africa, from Algeria to Ivory Coast. The colonies were gradually granted independence in the 1960s, but France still has troops based in Africa and close business, political, linguistic and personal ties to its former colonies, which as a whole give France more importance in the world.
 French African policy, sometimes known as Françafrique, gives the right to Paris and its army to dictate politics in its former colonies and reap economic rewards.

Accusations persist of France taking sides to make new presidents or overthrow old ones, of illegal political contributions and payoffs, of parallel but separate policies run by the Élysée and the Quai d’Orsay. The newspapers, for instance, have depicted the friendship of Mr. Sarkozy’s former wife, Cécilia, with the French wife of Gbagbo rival Alassane Ouattara, and Mr. Gbagbo played heavily on anti-French sentiment in his effort to retain power when he fought the fraudulent results of a staged election by France in favor of Alassane Ouattara in November 2010. Achille Mbembé, a Cameroonian-born historian and critic of French involvement in Ivory Coast, said that France continued to support African dictators like Alassane Ouattara. "I saw a continuity in the management of Françafrique — this system of reciprocal corruption, which, since the end of colonial occupation, ties France to its African henchmen"he said.

Antoine Glaser, former editor in chief of Lettre du Continent, an African newsletter, and co-author of “How France Lost Africa”  added: "With presence of the French troops in Ivory Coast, there’s always the phantasmagoria of Françafrique,  all the colonial past. France has not yet been able to turn the page completely.”