French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off his four-day tour of Africa by visiting Gabon, where he attended a rainforest protection summit on Thursday. Macron’s tour also includes visits to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and the Congo, and the French president is keen to renew ties with a region where his country and other European countries are witnessing competition with Russia and China. His eighteenth visit to Africa since starting his first term in 2017.
Macron traveled to the continent two days after presenting an African strategy for the next four years in Paris.
While Gabonese President Ali Bongo received Macron on Wednesday night at the presidential residence for dinner, Macron’s visit to Gabon is delicate as the opposition accuses him of “supporting” President Ali Bongo, who was elected under controversial circumstances in 2016 and could be a candidate again this year.
Gabonese opposition leaders said: “The Gabonese, whether they are wrong or not, will take your visit to their country as an expression of French support for the existing regime in order to increase its chances of staying in power.”
Macron, determined to expand France’s horizons on the continent, will sign an agreement on Friday in Luanda aimed at boosting Angola’s agricultural sector. With regard to France’s new policy in Africa, the French president, during his speech from the Elysee Palace, called for “humility” and “responsibility” by rejecting the strategic “competition” imposed, in his words, by those who settled there with their “armies and mercenaries,” referring to Russia and the Wagner military group, which is close to the Kremlin and prevalent especially in Central Africa and Mali, despite Bamako’s denial.
The French president described the Wagner group as “life insurance for failed regimes in Africa.”
On the eve of the African tour, the President of France said: “We must build a new balanced, mutual and responsible relationship” with the countries of the African continent: Africa is not a “zone of influence” and we must move from the “logic” of aid to the logic of investment The new generation condemns in front of 800 students “confirmed crimes” of colonialism, calling for a “new relationship” with Africa, a pact which it intends to extend to Europe.
Macron’s speech came after the end of Operation Barkhane to fight terrorism in the Sahel region, and French forces were forced to withdraw from Mali and Burkina Faso, which are ruled by two military councils with clear hostility to France.
France is deploying some 3,000 troops in the region, especially in Niger and Chad, up from 5,500 until recently, but wants to redeploy its soldiers to the Gulf of Guinea countries, swept by an armed wave.
