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Macron embarks on the first trip to Africa of the new semester

#Macron #embarks #trip #Africa #semester

President Emmanuel Macron begins a three-nation tour of West African states on Monday in the first trip to Africa of his new term in office to reinvigorate France’s post-colonial ties with the continent.

Macron will begin his July 25-28 trip, also the first company outside Europe in his new mandate, with a visit to Cameroon before continuing to Benin and then ending the trip in Guinea-Bissau.

Food issues will be high on the agenda of the talks, with African nations fearing shortages of grain in particular due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But security will also play a big role as France prepares to complete its withdrawal from Mali this year, with all countries in the region trying to allay fears of Islamist insurgency.

The trip to three countries rarely on the itinerary of global leaders comes with Macron winning a new term in April and vowing to uphold his bid for a new France-Africa relationship.

France has also followed with concern the emergence of other powers looking to gain a foothold in an area that Paris still considers part of its sphere of influence, notably Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but also increasingly China and Russia.

– “Political Priority” –

The tour “shows the president’s commitment in the process of renewing ties with the African continent,” said a French presidential official, who asked not to be named.

It will signal that the African continent is a “political priority” of his presidency.

In Cameroon, which has been torn apart by ethnic violence and an insurgency by Anglophone separatists, Macron will meet 89-year-old President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for nearly 40 years and is the world’s longest-serving non-royal leader.

Biya has ruled the country with an iron fist, rejecting calls for federalism and crushing the separatist rebellion.

Macron will move to Benin, a neighboring country to Africa’s most populous country Nigeria, on Wednesday. The north of the country has faced deadlier attacks, with the jihadist threat now spreading from the Sahel to Gulf of Guinea countries.

He is likely to be credited for campaigning in November for the return of 26 historical treasures stolen in 1892 by French colonial troops from Abomey, the capital of the former Dahomey Kingdom in southern present-day Benin.

Benin has long been praised for its thriving multi-party democracy. But critics say democracy has steadily eroded under President Patrice Talon over the past half decade. Opposition leader Reckya Madougou was sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges in 2021.

On Thursday, Macron will end his trip in Guinea-Bissau, which has been plagued by a political crisis, while President Umaro Sissoco Embalo prepares to take the helm of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

– reconsider strategy –

With all the countries criticized by activists for their human rights records, the Elysee has insisted that governmental and legal issues be addressed, albeit “without media noise but in the form of direct exchanges between heads of state”.

Macron’s first tenure was marked by visits to non-Francophone African countries, including regional powerhouses Nigeria and South Africa, as he sought to engage with the entire continent and not just former French possessions.

Benin is a former French colony, but Guinea-Bissau was once a Portuguese colony, while Cameroon’s colonial heritage is a mix of British and German, as well as French.

Macron, meanwhile, has insisted that France’s military presence in the region will adapt and not disappear once the withdrawal from Mali is complete.

He announced last week that a reconsideration of France’s presence would be complete by the autumn, saying the military should be “less exposed” going forward, but using them was still a “strategic necessity”.

The pullout from Mali follows a collapse in ties with the country’s ruling junta, which has accused Western states of relying on Russian Wagner mercenaries rather than European allies to combat an Islamist insurgency.

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