France owned large tracts of West Africa, and maintained strong post-colonial influence there.
Obviously France's relationship with these countries is in ways poor, reflecting its past as colonial overlord. It's links have also been slipping, because there are now so many rich or powerful international competitors: wealthy Middle Eastern states, China, Russia, India, etc. France has realised this and tried to "turn the page", but all those many decades (centuries if we include empire) create an institutional momentum that is very hard to change the direction of.
So yes, France is unpopular across many Western African states and to a substantial extent deservedly so. But fundamentally these are states whose people are failed by their national institutions, colonial meddling notwithstanding. France takes the hit because it is the traditional backer of their regimes. But the new regimes that overthrow them are likely to be every bit (if not more) venal and incompetent, and the people will eventually realise that none of these other international partners do them any favours either. They're cheering Russia now, they may well be regretting it in 5-10 years.
