Before going there, Macron will set out his “vision of partnership with African countries” this Monday.

Emmanuel Macron will highlight France’s ties to Africa this week. The country’s leader actually kicks off a major row with a keynote address at the Elysee Palace on Monday, dedicated to Paris’ diplomatic and military strategy on a continent whose influence is disputed.

The president will tour four Central African countries on Wednesday: Gabon, Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As a first step, he will participate in a summit on conserving forests in the Congo River Basin in Libreville.

Forced withdrawal from Mali and Burkina

From Paris this Monday, Emmanuel Macron will outline his “vision of partnership with African countries” and the “direction” he wants to take in his second term, according to the French president. He will present “his priorities and methods for deepening the partnership between France, Europe and the African continent”.

The president is expected to address the most important issue of the evolution of the French military position on the continent after the end of the Bargan counter-terrorism operation in the Sahel and the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali and Burkina Faso. Both these countries are now controlled by military rulers, and the feeling of hostility towards France is alive and well there.

In Mali, the military regime has been accused by several countries of using the services of Wagner, a Russian paramilitary group close to the Kremlin that is active in the Central African Republic, another former French colony. In Burkina, the military junta denounced security agreements between Paris and Ouagadougou and French special forces, and about 400 soldiers stationed there left the country last week.

Influence contested by Beijing and Moscow

France wants to redeploy its deployment to countries in the Gulf of Guinea, which have been driven by jihadists, after counting 5,500 men in the region, particularly in Niger and Chad, with 3,000 more troops. That stadium. In this region, and on the continent as a whole, the influence of France and the West is contested by China or Russia. Thus, three of the four countries visited by the French president – Gabon, Congo and Angola – abstained from voting last Thursday on a UN General Assembly resolution demanding Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine.

Monday’s speech will echo a speech in Ouagadougou in 2017, in which Emmanuel Macron signaled his desire to return to Paris’s post-colonial African policy of “Françafrique”, marked by political intrigue and sultry connections. African youths against France are suspicious. The president later called for a “new relationship” with Africa, a deal he intends to extend to Europe.