The French president assures that he is “not fooled” about the “diplomatic pressures” which explain the refusal of certain leaders to qualify the situation in Ukraine as a “war”.
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Countering Moscow’s influence in Africa was one of the objectives of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Cameroon, Benin, and Guinea-Bissau. The French president broached the subject in his first speech, Tuesday July 26 in Yaoundé, during a press conference with his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya. He criticized “hypocrisy” of the continent vis-à-vis Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.
“I too often see hypocrisy, especially on the African continent (…) in not knowing how to qualify a war, because there are diplomatic pressures, I’m not fooled”, said the head of state, without directly naming Russia. He sees a contrast between this attitude and that of the Europeans, who “is in no way to participate in this war, but to recognize and name it”.
“We need you, because otherwise this pattern will repeat itself over and over”, continued Emmanuel Macron. He assured that France was “the country that is most committed to African states at their request for their security”while Russia is getting more involved in this area through the Wagner mercenary group.
Arrested on Monday by a collective of Cameroonian political parties who called on him to recognize the “crimes of colonial France”, Emmanuel Macron did not. But he expressed the wish that be launched “a joint work of Cameroonian and French historians” for “turn on the light” on of the “painful moments” and “tragic”. He took “the solemn commitment to open our archives in their entirety to this group of historians”as François Hollande had already done in 2015.