Emmanuel Macron will highlight France’s relations with Africa this week. Indeed, on Monday, the head of state begins an important sequence with a major speech at the Elysée dedicated to Paris’s diplomatic and military strategy 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 the Congo (DRC). During the first stage in Libreville he will take part in a summit to protect the forests of the Congo Basin.
Forced withdrawals from Mali and Burkina
Emmanuel Macron must therefore, starting this Monday in Paris, specify his “vision of partnership with African countries” and “the course” he intends to follow during his second term, according to the French Presidency. He will present “his priorities and his method for deepening the partnership between France, Europe and the African continent”.
The President is also expected to raise the very sensitive issue of the development of 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 there is a sense of hostility towards France.
In Mali, several countries have accused the junta of using the services of the Kremlin-affiliated Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which is also active in another former French colony, the Central African Republic. In Burkina, the junta canceled the defense agreements between Paris and Ouagadougou and the French special forces, about 400 soldiers stationed there, withdrew from the country last week.
An influence disputed by Beijing and Moscow
France is still stationing about 3,000 troops in the region, particularly in Niger and Chad, after counting up to 5,500 men there, but it intends to re-articulate its system towards the countries in the Gulf of Guinea that have been hit by jihad -Advance have been won and are less visible the field. In this region and throughout the continent, the influence of France and Westerners is contested by China or Russia. For example, three of the four countries that the French president will visit – Gabon, Congo and Angola – abstained last Thursday from voting on a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine.
Monday’s speech will also mirror that of Ouagadougou in 2017, in which Emmanuel Macron had expressed his desire to turn the page with Paris’s post-colonial Africa policy, “Françafrique,” which was characterized by political collusion and sulphurous connections , and appealed to an increasingly suspicious African youth towards France. The president then called for a “new relationship” with Africa, a pact he wants to extend to Europe.