Far from the crisis around the pension reform, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected, Friday December 20, at the end of the day in Ivory Coast to celebrate Christmas with the soldiers deployed abroad. Well-mowed lawn, flags displayed and shiny badges: the French military camp of Port-Bouët is about to receive with great pomp the Head of State as soon as he leaves the nearby Abidjan airport.
After the military honors, Emmanuel Macron will address the approximately 1,000 soldiers from the base before sitting in their midst in a large tent set up on the football field for a dinner prepared by the head of the Élysée Palace, Guillaume Gomez, on the job for several days.
As he did in Niger in 2017 and in Chad in 2018, the president should, during this 48-hour visit, again call on the French to think of "our soldiers", who "chose to commit" in the face of "the threat that is permanent", in the words he said on the N'Djamena base.
>> Read also: Emmanuel Macron wakes up early with French troops in Niger
Loss of 13 soldiers in Mali
Last year, this Christmas Eve with the troops took place in the middle of the Yellow Vests crisis, which had greatly shaken the Head of State. This year, the atmosphere is hardly more festive since the executive faces a massive challenge to its pension reform and a 16-day strike in transport that greatly disrupts the departure of the Christmas holidays.
But, at the Port-Bouët camp, Emmanuel Macron will especially mention the recent drama experienced by the French army: the loss of 13 soldiers from Operation Barkhane in an accidental collision between two helicopters during an anti-Jihadist operation in Mali.
Several soldiers who participated in this mission and others led in the Sahel were invited to Abidjan, where they will meet with the president accompanied by the Minister of the Armies, Florence Parly, and the Chief of the Defense Staff, General François Lecointre. At the same time, his wife Brigitte Macron will meet families of soldiers deployed in Côte d'Ivoire.
Tribute to the 71 soldiers killed in Niger
After his visit to Côte d'Ivoire, Emmanuel Macron will make a three-hour stopover in Niamey on Sunday to meet with his counterpart, Mahamadou Issoufou, and pay tribute to the 71 Nigerien soldiers who recently died in the attack from a military camp.
This short visit aims to prepare for the Sahel summit scheduled for January 13 in Pau (southwest of France) and to which the presidents of the G5 Sahel are invited (Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad and Mauritania).
>> Read also: The summit between the G5 Sahel and France will finally be held on January 13 in Pau
On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron and his Ivorian counterpart, Alassane Ouattara, will relaunch the work of the International Academy against terrorism, which wants to become the training center for players in the sector in West Africa.
A visit focused on security, youth and sport
The Ivorian authorities have become "extremely vigilant" in the face of the terrorist threat since the attack which left 19 dead in the seaside resort of Grand-Bassam in 2016, underlines Colonel Gauthier.
In addition to security, Emmanuel Macron's visit will focus on youth and sport, two sectors that he set up as a priority to reinvigorate relations between France and Africa.
In the company of footballer Didier Drogba, ex-idol of Olympique de Marseille and Chelsea, he will inaugurate on Saturday a "sports agora" created with the French association WinWin in a popular district of Abidjan. Then he will debate with 300 students in the health field, before signing bilateral agreements, in particular for the construction of the Abidjan metro.
With AFP
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