The French president's trip to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau this week comes at a time when France's influence in Africa has never been called so much into question.
For the first African tour of Emmanuel Macron's second term, the Elysée Palace had at one point considered a stopover in Zambia – an unexpected one that was inspired by "the strong impression" that the country's president Hakainde Hichilema left on Mr. Macron during their meeting in Brussels at the African Union-European Union summit in February. This was not to be.
Rather than visit a newly-elected president who offered to use his country's agricultural production to counteract the shortage of grain caused by the war in Ukraine and alleviate resulting global food insecurity, Mr. Macron finally decided on a more "classic" trip from July 25 to 28 to Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau.
"The choice of the three countries visited reflects both a desire for continuity in terms of substance, but also for deepening partnerships," explained the Elysée.
'A political priority'
After having tried in vain to mediate in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine during the French presidency of the European Union in the first half of the year, at the beginning of his second five-year termMr. Macron now intends to make it clear that the "renewal" of relations between Paris and the African capitals remains "a political priority," despite the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali and the de facto rivalry with Moscow in part of the continent.
In 2017, the context was quite different. After he had just been elected, Emmanuel Macron made his first trip to the continent, to Gao, Mali, in a show of support for the soldiers of the French anti-terrorist operation "Barkhane" and to chastise then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta ("IBK"), whom he considered too indecisive in the fight against jihadists and the stabilization of his failed state. Since then, IBK was overthrown by a coup in August 2020, before dying less than two years later.
Today, France has been forced into a somewhat inglorious military withdrawal from the country, due to be completed by the end of the summer. It comes after the intrusion of Wagner's Russian mercenaries, who support the junta.
France's influence on the continent has never been the subject of so much questioning on the streets of French-speaking Africa.
"Our goal is not to be less present in the Sahel or in Africa – quite the contrary," the presidency said. "But we will have to learn to see ourselves differently and to be seen differently."
This move into "areas of strategic interest" is therefore a way of not losing more ground: Cameroon and Benin are two French-speaking African countries that, for different reasons, hold a special place in Franco-African relations. But they are also two authoritarian regimes, one in its twilight years, the other under construction, at a time when democratic principles are being challenged everywhere on the continent.
Source:LE MONDE
