France has a lot of troops in africa, protecting civilians whenever a civil war erupts ( like in operation licorne in cote d'ivoire) , or more recently in mali, to fight against djihadist groups spreading chaos.

This article reads like propaganda to me. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that france still has unjustified commercial priviledges,espeically in the oil business, but the monetary things reads like a complete misunderstanding of central bank monetary stability policies ( franc cfa is exceptionnaly stable compared to the poor politicial stability of the area).