The war to control the resources of the 21st century has already begun. And Africa, as usual, is in the front row. For decades, France has not been the only one with its sights set on the continent. In the 1960s, the discovery of huge oil deposits in the Gulf of Guinea attracted a new player with inextinguishable needs: the United States. Little by little, the world's leading power is establishing itself in Africa.
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In 1992, its army intervened in Somalia, ravaged by a civil war, for a so-called humanitarian operation. Six years later, the United States did it again in Sudan after attacks on two American embassies by a then-obscure organization

In the early 2000s, the United States intensified its presence in Africa, particularly in the Sahara, in the face of China's growing influence on the continent. In 2007, the Bush administration set up Africom, a political-military structure designed to strengthen its control in the region. Behind this initiative, strategic issues related to the Sahara's vast natural resources emerged: oil, uranium, iron, gold, among others. At the same time, France also consolidated its military presence on the continent.

AFRICOM, the shadow war in the Sahara
Director: Bob Coen and Éric Nadler
Production: ARTE France, Crescendo Films.