Emmanuel Macron will highlight, this week, France’s relations with Africa. The Head of State indeed begins an important sequence on Monday with a major speech at the Elysee Palace devoted to the diplomatic and military strategy of Paris on a continent where its influence is disputed.
The president will continue on Wednesday with a tour of four Central African countries: Gabon, Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During the first stage, in Libreville, he will participate in a summit on the preservation of the forests of the Congo River basin.
Forced withdrawals from Mali and Burkina
From this Monday in Paris, Emmanuel Macron must therefore specify his “vision of partnership with African countries” and “the course” he intends to take during his second term, according to the French presidency. He will present “his priorities and his method to deepen the partnership between France, Europe and the African continent”.
The president is also expected to address the very sensitive issue of the evolution of the French military posture on the continent after the end of the Barkhane anti-terrorist operation in the Sahel and the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso. These two countries are now controlled by military juntas and a feeling of hostility towards France is alive there.
In Mali, the junta is accused by several countries of using the services of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, close to the Kremlin, which is also active in another former French colony, the Central African Republic. In Burkina, the junta denounced the defense agreements between Paris and Ouagadougou and the French special forces, about 400 soldiers, who were stationed there, withdrew from the country last week.
An influence contested by Beijing and Moscow
France still deploys some 3,000 soldiers in the region, particularly in Niger and Chad, after having counted up to 5,500 men there, but it intends to rearticulate its system towards countries in the Gulf of Guinea won by the jihadist thrust and be less visible. in the field. In this region, and on the continent as a whole, the influence of France and Westerners is contested by China or Russia. Thus, three of the four countries that the French president will visit – Gabon, Congo and Angola – abstained last Thursday during the vote on a resolution of the General Assembly of the UN demanding the Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.
Monday’s speech will also echo that of Ouagadougou, in 2017, in which Emmanuel Macron had marked his desire to turn the page with the postcolonial African policy of Paris, the “Françafrique”, marked by political collusion and sulphurous links, and reached out to an increasingly suspicious African youth vis-à-vis France. The president then called for a “new relationship” with Africa, a pact he intends to extend to Europe.
