Expertise France is EU favourite for military contracts in Sahel

摘要

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is stepping up its military assistance for missions for G5 Sahel member countries through its technical cooperation structure, Expertise France. Expertise France received €100m from the European Union (EU) earlier this year, allowing it to step up its equipment supply and consulting services since September. The funding followed an initial €90m it got from Brussels in 2018. Expertise France's management of those funds has been criticised by the EU and several G5 Sahel countries, who accused it of major delays in delivering 50 Bastion armoured personnel carriers acquired for nearly €50m from the French manufacturer Arquus (Africa Intelligence, 09/10/19). It is nevertheless still in the EU's good books, thanks to management fees of less than 8 percent which make it considerably more competitive than European competitors like the German development agency GIZ.