France’s President Emmanuel Macron launched a trip to Central Africa on Wednesday in a desperate bid to protect French interests in Africa, despite widespread anti-French sentiment in the majority of African countries.
On Wednesday, he arrived in Gabon’s capital, Libreville, and will then travel to Angola, Congo-Brazzaville, and the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Macron’s visit comes as Paris becomes increasingly concerned about Russia’s growing influence in French-speaking African countries, joining China, which has been active in the region for some time.
Burkina Faso informed France on Wednesday that it is terminating a 1961 agreement that served as the legal basis for French military aid.
Macron called for a “mutual and responsible partnership” with the continent of more than 50 countries in a speech on France’s Africa policy on Monday, especially on climate challenges.
He also stated that the French military would lessen its presence on the continent in the next months, however a military source and analyst have suggested that French army chiefs may be hesitant to do so.
A speech that did not go down well in the diaspora or in Africa, where calls for the French presence to be removed are growing.
According to official data, more than 3,000 French soldiers are stationed in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Djibouti.
Another 3,000 are in the Sahel region, which includes Niger and Chad.
– Distraction? –
In Gabon, Macron will dine with President Ali Bongo Ondimba on Wednesday.
On Thursday he will attend the One Forest Summit on preserving forests worldwide, including along the vast Congo River basin.
Gabonese environmental activist Marc Ona Essangui said he was worried Macron’s visit would detract from the rainforest summit’s main goal.
Gabonese people would instead likely view his presence as giving a political boost to Bongo in the run-up to presidential elections later this year, he said.
“What people are registering is Emmanuel Macron coming to back his candidate,” he said.
Bongo, 64, has been president since succeeding his long-ruling father in 2009.
Macron has insisted Africa is a priority of his second term, and in July he went to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau.
After Gabon, he heads to the former Portuguese colony of Angola on Friday. There, he is set to sign an accord to develop the agricultural sector as part of a drive to enhance French ties with English- and Portuguese-speaking parts of Africa.
– Congo talks –
He will then stop in the Republic of Congo, another former French colony, where President Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled for almost four decades, albeit in several stints.
Finally, he will end his trip on Saturday in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
