French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech to the French community at the residence of the French Ambassador in Libreveille on March 2, 2023. (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated Thursday that France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa after he began a four-nation tour of the continent.
“The age of Francafrique is well over,” Macron said in remarks to the French community in Gabon, referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend its interests.
Macron is visiting four central African countries at a time when France finds itself facing a wave of hostility among troubled former colonies in the Sahel, forcing it to withdraw its troops.
Ahead of his visit, Macron on Monday gave some details of the redeployment of French forces, after their departure from Mali and the Central African Republic in 2022 and from Burkina Faso last month.
ALSO READ: France’s Macron sets four-nation central African tour
He said there would be a “noticeable reduction” in the French troop presence in Africa “in the coming months” and a greater focus on training and equipping allied countries’ forces.
In his remarks in Libreville, Macron insisted that the reorganisation was “neither a withdrawal nor disengagement but adapting an arrangement” with allies.
Macron arrived late Wednesday in Gabon, a close French supporter, for a conference on preserving tropical forests — an initiative that he and Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba unveiled at last year’s UN climate conference.
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After attending the summit section of the conference on Thursday, he heads to Angola before flying on Friday to the Republic of Congo and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
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