No, Russia has not given France an ultimatum to end use of CFA franc

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on November 23, 2018 at 18:07
  • Updated on November 27, 2018 at 18:06
  • 2 min read
  • By Anne-Sophie FAIVRE LE CADRE

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A text much-shared over social media since March 2018 claims Russia has ordered France to end the CFA franc, whose two variants - the West African CFA franc (XOF) and the Central African CFA franc (XAF) dating back to the colonial era are respectively used in eight west African countries and six central African countries. This article is false and the Russian embassy issued a denial.

“Urgent: Russia demands that France stop using CFA franc.” The title of this article, published on February 10 by the website Africa24.info, is illustrated with a composite photo depicting Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin face to face.

“Russia has given an ultimatum to France to end the monetary system it imposes on its ex-colonies in Africa or to face serious consequences. This announcement came after anti-CFA movements emerged and demonstrations were held in several countries to denounce the CFA franc as an instrument of alienation,” reads the article, which has been shared more than 90,000 times, according to audience monitoring platform Crowdtangle.

“Our sources pointed out that the Russians do not consider this currency a good thing for Africa because it is an obstacle to development. Our sources also reported  that the Russian Minister of Economy gave his French counterpart a 6-month ultimatum to put an end to this currency so that the African countries concerned could develop. If not, there will be Russian economic sanctions and a ban on imports of French products,” added Africa24.info.

Since February, the article has reappeared in various guises in dozens of online media based across west Africa. The Mauritanian news site Kassataya, for example, picked up the story on March 13 to report the apparent Russian ultimatum to France as a “crushing blow.”

The Africa24.info website -- not to be confused with the international television news network Africa24 -- was also behind a false story claiming France was delivering arms to Boko Haram which we disproved in a previous fact check.

The Russian ministry for foreign affairs published a statement on its website denying the ultimatum story.

“Our readers will be highly amused at the fact that Africa24.info is based in California, rather a long way from Africa. It would appear the United States is the most appropriate place to receive the  most trustworthy information on Russian foreign policy in Europe and in Africa,” the statement read sardonically. “We must stress the disgusting and absurd nature of the article published by Africa24.info,” it concluded.

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