France still has a lot of neo-colonial control in West Africa. Over their currencies being tied to French banks, over their economy with preferential treatment given to French companies, and over their media space with French language still being very dominant in many former French colonies.

The Sahel states (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso) in particular were very lucrative for France before the military coups that ousted the corrupt French puppet governments. After the coup in Niger France lost its control over Niger's Uranium mining industry where they would pay Niger something like 5% of what their Uranium is actually worth.

Before the coups France was deeply involved with military co-operation and "providing security" to those states under the guise of allegedly fighting terrorism. Only the situation never got better and only got worse, thus justifying continued French military presence. This made many people eventually suspect that France was funding and arming the terrorists.

Since France was ousted things have rapidly improved. Russia took over the role of military and security partner for these countries and they have started to push back the French backed terrorists for the first time in decades. France has been furious over the loss of its neo-colonies and has been playing very dirty trying to get them back.

They did nuclear testing in Algeria as algerians fought for their independence. All European countries did fucked up shit, but the French aren't the worst only because the competition is so fierce.