President Emmanuel Macron will deliver a major speech on Monday at the Élysée Palace about France’s diplomatic and military strategy in Africa. A continent where French influence is highly controversial. On Wednesday, Macron will embark on a trip to four Central African countries.
A major speech and a tour through four African countries. On Monday, February 27th, an important African sequence begins for Emmanuel Macron with a major speech at the Élysée Palace dedicated to France’s diplomatic and military strategy on the African continent.
The head of state wants to explain his vision of a partnership with the African countries and the course he intends to take during his second term in office, according to the French presidency. He will “present his priorities and his method for deepening the partnership between France, Europe, and the African continent”, it was further stated.
On Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron will start a trip through four Central African countries: Gabon, Angola, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the first stop, in Libreville (Gabon), he will participate in a summit on the preservation of forests in the Congo River basin.
In July 2022, Emmanuel Macron had already visited Cameroon, Benin, and Guinea-Bissau. He intends to continue his visits to the continent “almost every six months or even more frequently” in the future.
During his speech in Paris on Monday, the president is also expected to address the very delicate question of how the French military will position itself in Africa after the end of the anti-terror operation Barkhane in the Sahel zone and the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso. Both countries are now controlled by military juntas and there is a distinctly hostile mood towards France.
France still has around 3,000 soldiers stationed in the region, mainly in Niger and Chad, but wants to shift its troops to the jihadism-controlled countries on the Gulf of Guinea and thus be somewhat less visible.
Throughout the African continent, the influence of France and the West in general is being challenged by China and also Russia. Thus, three of the four countries that the French president will now visit – namely Gabon, Congo, and Angola – abstained last Thursday from voting on the UN General Assembly resolution calling for Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine.
“More listening and humility”
This new, more cautious approach is confirmed by the Secretary of State for Development, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, who will accompany the president on his trip.
“Heute wählen die afrikanischen Länder ihre Partner frei und souverän aus, und das ist auch gut so”, betont Zacharopoulou. Sie ist der Ansicht, dass die wachsende antifranzösische Stimmung im frankophonen Westen Afrikas Paris dazu veranlasst, seine “Haltung in Richtung mehr Zuhören und Demut” weiterzuentwickeln.