France is absolutely involved with Gaddafi. There were strange links between Sarkozy (and his campaign) and Gaddafi's regime, and it's extremely likely that France essentially ordered his death (or strongly contributed to it) because he knew too much and would have too much leverage. Considering the threat he was also becoming regarding france's interests in the region as a whole, without the money links to Sarkozy France stil had enough reason to want him gone.

They've assassinated and coup-ed plenty of african regimes, including (no definitive proof but I'm personally quite convinced) with the death of Sankara.