President Emmanuel Macron participates, Thursday, March 2, with several heads of state of Central Africa in a summit, organized in Libreville, devoted to the protection of tropical forests, at the start of a four-day tour in the region.
Emmanuel Macron arrived Wednesday evening in the capital of Gabon and was received at the presidential palace by his counterpart Ali Bongo Ondimba.
This summit, called One Forest Summit, and co-organized by the two countries, is intended to find "concrete solutions" for the conservation of forests, the protection of the climate and species in a context of climate change, but "n' will not aim to have new political declarations adopted", the organizers underlined in advance.
They specify that it will mainly aim to implement the objectives set by the Paris Agreement on climate (2015) and the Montreal COP15 on biodiversity (2022).
The French head of state must go in the morning to the Arboretum Raponda Walker park, one of the protected areas of the Gabonese coast north of Libreville, before joining the presidential palace for meetings with scientists, NGOs and private sector actors in the afternoon.
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Other Heads of State including Denis Sassou-Nguesso (Congo-Brazzaville), Faustin-Archange Touadéra (Central African Republic), Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno (Chad) or Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea) will also make the trip.
The French and Gabonese presidents will conclude the summit with two speeches at the end of the day.
The One Forest Summit began on Wednesday with discussions between ministers, civil society and experts on several themes (sustainable forest management, biodiversity, financing).
"Dwindling Influence"
However, the arrival of Emmanuel Macron was decried by part of the political opposition and Gabonese civil society, accusing him of coming to "honor" Ali Bongo, elected under controversial conditions in 2016 and likely candidate for re-election this year.
This is Emmanuel Macron's eighteenth trip to Africa since the start of his first five-year term in 2017, where French influence and presence are increasingly questioned.
Since 2022, the French army has been pushed out of Mali and Burkina Faso by the ruling juntas in these two countries.
Burkina has also just denounced a "military assistance agreement" signed in 1961 with France, the day after the country's independence.
Bolstered by mercenaries from the Wagner group and disinformation campaigns that fuel anti-French sentiment, Russia is increasingly outweighing Paris in this historic French sphere of influence.
Emmanuel Macron presented Monday from Paris his African strategy for the next four years.
He advocated "humility" and encouraged a new "balanced" and "responsible" partnership with African countries.
He also announced a reduction in the French military presence, which has been concentrated for ten years on the fight against jihadism in the Sahel.
"Election Year"
After Gabon, the French president will visit Angola, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Angola, the Head of State will sign an agreement aimed at developing the agricultural sector there.
He will then make a brief stopover in Brazzaville, before concluding his tour in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a former Belgian colony but also the largest French-speaking country in the world, where President Félix Tshisekedi, in power since January 2019, is preparing at an election date this year.
This step can also prove delicate when France is accused in the DRC of supporting Rwanda rather than Kinshasa, which is facing a rebellion in the east of the country.
With AFP
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