France used the BCEAO Central Bank to paralyze a targeted African government

Evidence

The objective was realised in stages. To begin with, the French government cajoled the BCEAO, of which Ouattara had been governor between 1988 and 1990, into preventing the Ivorian government from accessing its accounts at the BCEAO and closing down the Ivorian branches of the BCEAO. However, the government managed to reopen them through a measure of staff requisition; at that point, the BCEAO activated software to block their operations. The bank’s administrators also forced its governor, Philippe-Henri Dacoury-Tabley, to resign, accusing him of being too complacent with the Ivorian authorities. Then, in February 2011, faced with Gbagbo’s refusal to give in to international pressure, the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance asked the French banks operating in the country – BICICI, a branch of BNP Paribas, and SGBCI, a branch of Société Générale – to cease their activities in the country. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 269

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the chapter on How the CFA works and the BCEAO structure covered earlier in the book. — connects to: France counterfeited Guinean banknotes to destabilize and collapse its economy — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 152; The CFA franc functions as a political instrument of pressure over 15 African states.; France deliberately built rival West African blocs to counter Nigeria’s regional lead — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 289 (+7 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the specific ‘software’ BCEAO used to block operations — what mechanism does this correspond to in payment systems?

Related

• The CFA central banks violate their own strict controls when serving French interests. (similarity 0.86)
• France’s guarantee is backed by pooled African reserves and French central bank seats (similarity 0.84)
• France treated monetary and military pressure as interchangeable weapons. (similarity 0.84)
• French Treasury supervision is the backbone of the CFA system’s operations (similarity 0.83)
• Ivory Coast was creating its own currency when France launched its 2011 assault (similarity 0.83)
• The CFA franc functions as a political instrument of pressure over 15 African states. (similarity 0.83)
• The CFA guarantee arrangement secretly benefits France at Africa’s expense (similarity 0.82)
• The CFA system requires African central banks to deposit half their reserves with France. (similarity 0.82)
• The CFA franc was a colonial instrument depriving African actors of credit. (similarity 0.82)
• France ran nearly 40 military interventions across Africa between 1960 and 1991 (similarity 0.82)
• French pressure succeeded because Gbagbo was politically isolated after the 2002 partition (similarity 0.81)
• France used military force to prevent the Ivory Coast from leaving the franc zone. (similarity 0.81)
• The CFA franc’s real purpose was draining colonial wealth to France. (similarity 0.81)
• African deputies publicly exposed the CFA franc as a tool of the colonial pact (similarity 0.81)
• The CFA system gives France instruments to steer franc-zone politics (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• France treated monetary and military pressure as interchangeable weapons. #corroborates (0.75) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 273
• The CFA guarantee arrangement secretly benefits France at Africa’s expense #expands (0.70) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 146
• An overvalued CFA franc penalised African exports while favouring imports from France #expands (0.60) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 128
• France only concedes monetary reform when African pressure threatens its position #expands (0.50) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 336