It is in a climate of mistrust that the French president begins Wednesday, March 1 in Libreville a four-day tour of Central Africa, the opportunity to experience the "new relationship" that he calls for with a continent where the France's influence continues to decline.
The Head of State is expected at the end of the afternoon in the Gabonese capital, the first stage of a journey which will then take him to Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He is making his eighteenth trip to Africa since the start of his first five-year term in 2017. He is going there mainly two days after having exposed from Paris his African strategy for the next four years.
Taking note of a growing resentment towards France, a former colonial power, Emmanuel Macron called on Monday to "build a new relationship, balanced, reciprocal and responsible [with Africa]".
He also announced a reduction in the French military presence, focused for ten years on the fight against jihadism in the Sahel, but which has become the embodiment of the colonial heritage in the eyes of a youth eager for "new" independence.
"Africa is not a pre-square", hammered the head of state, advocating a "posture of modesty and listening" in the extension of his speech in Ouagadougou in November 2017.
Turning the page of "Françafrique"
Since August 2022, the French army has been pushed out of Mali and Burkina Faso by the ruling juntas in these two countries.
She also left the Central African Republic in December where she had intervened to put an end to inter-ethnic violence.
Armed with mercenaries from the Wagner group and disinformation campaigns that fuel anti-French sentiment on the networks, Russia is increasingly outweighing Paris in its historical sphere of influence.
Emmanuel Macron now intends to rely on civil society and the African diasporas in France to turn the page on "Françafrique", long made up of troubled links and support for local potentates.
"Our interest is first and foremost democracy," he insists, also promising to "defend French economic interests" where many countries, from China to Turkey, are advancing openly.
The exercise promises to be delicate in Gabon where the opposition accuses him of "doubting" through his visit President Ali Bongo, elected under controversial conditions in 2016 and likely candidate for re-election this year.
The latter will welcome him on Wednesday evening at the presidency for a dinner, followed by a sequence Thursday as part of the One Forest Summit (One Forest Summit) on the preservation of tropical forests.
>> To read on France 24.com: in the Congo Basin, the protection of the forest against the diplomatic game
"Rightly or wrongly, the Gabonese will interpret your arrival in their country as an expression of France's support for the regime in place, with a view to helping it stay in power," asserted the main leaders of the Gabonese opposition.
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Macron against the grain?
Emmanuel Macron defends himself from any "political" approach and assures that the sole purpose of his visit is the summit on the forests of the Congo basin, the first lung of the planet according to the Elysée, now threatened by agricultural overexploitation.
Ditto in Luanda where he will sign a partnership on Friday to develop the agricultural sector in Angola, a leading oil country but where the majority of the population remains immersed in poverty.
Angolan President Joao Lourenço, re-elected in 2022, embodies the continuity of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power since independence from Portugal in 1975 and for a long time a single party.
Emmanuel Macron will then make a brief stopover in Brazzaville where President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been in power for nearly forty years, a meeting which there too risks appearing against the grain of his speech on Monday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony but also the largest French-speaking country in the world, will undoubtedly offer him a better opportunity to unfold his vision of Africa.
But here too President Félix Tshisekedi, in power since January 2019, is preparing for an election this year and the opposition does not see this visit favorably.
The French president will also be eagerly awaited on the crisis in the east of the country, where Rwanda is accused of supporting the M23 rebellion and where he has tried, in vain, to mediate.
With AFP
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