Terrorism and food security, the focus of Macron's tour of Africa
The continuation of the fight against jihadist terrorism and food security despite the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine are the main themes of French President Emmanuel Macron's tour of Africa this week.
The trip to Cameroon (Tuesday), Benin (Wednesday) and Guinea Bissau (Thursday) aims to give "a sign of political priority" to the continent at the start of Macron's second term, said a source at the Elysée.
One of the main objectives of the tour is to strengthen multilateral cooperation against the spread of Sahel jihadist terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea region (northern Cameroon, Benin and Togo).
In Benin, Macron and his delegation, which will include the Minister of Defence, will discuss with the local authorities the modalities of concrete support against terrorism, a problem that is increasingly affecting the country.
France is maintaining the Barkhane military operation against jihadist terrorism in the Sahel region and wants to extend multilateral cooperation to the Gulf of Guinea.
However, Paris does not intend to station troops in more African countries, such as Togo or Benin, as neither of those countries have requested it, the source said during a conversation with journalists.
But France is also in the process of pulling its troops out of Mali, where the military junta that rules the country after a coup has opted to break with Paris and use the mercenaries of the Russian company Wagner.
Wagner's expansion "worries" the French government, the Elysée source acknowledges, since this company, which is linked to the Kremlin, is already present in the Central African Republic and has tried to expand to other African countries such as Mozambique.
The source recalls that experience shows that, "under the cover of the fight against terrorism", Wagner is a means for some African governments to stay in power at the cost of increased violence against the civilian population.
France is also watching from the sidelines as Russia (without Wagner) continues to position itself in the region, for example with the defence agreement it signed with Cameroon last April.
The second major issue on Macron's African tour will be Africa's food security, which has been called into question by the sharp rise in food prices, especially cereals, as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Macron proposed the FARM initiative to help African countries increase their food production, an idea that received the support of Senegalese President Macky Sall in June, and which he hopes to "accelerate" on this tour.
The Cameroon stage is key, because it is the largest economy in Central Africa, has an important food production and processing sector, and France hopes to collaborate with these companies, including investments in its agricultural sector.
Macron's visit to Cameroon will inevitably have a political component, as the country's president, Paul Biya, has been in power for 40 years.
The Elysée source stressed that "we are not organising any transition", although he assured that "reforms" would be discussed. He also insisted that Macron, who will have a meeting with young people and representatives of civil society, wants to address the population as a whole.
Macron's tour will culminate on Thursday in Guinea Bissau, a Portuguese-speaking country but which is embarking on a process of rapprochement with France as it is surrounded by French-speaking countries.
