This is his first second-term trip to the African continent. Emmanuel Macron arrived in Cameroon on the evening of Monday July 25. The Head of State was welcomed around 10:40 p.m. local time (11:40 p.m. Paris time) at Yaoundé airport, the country’s capital, by Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, before a short formal ceremony. This trip to sub-Saharan Africa, which should last until Thursday, also takes him to Benin and Guinea-Bissau. Why did he choose these countries? Franceinfo summarizes the reasons for these visits.
To establish a dialogue with the leaders
After being welcomed with great fanfare by Joseph Dion Ngute, Emmanuel Macron goes to the presidential palace on Tuesday for an interview and then a lunch with his counterpart Paul Biya. At 89, the latter has ruled Cameroon with an iron fist for almost forty years. Two years ago, Emmanuel Macron harshly criticized him and denounced human rights violations in the English-speaking separatist north of the country. During this visit, angry subjects will not be ruled out, promises the Elysée. This is the first trip of a French president to the country since 2015.
“Despite the differences and tensions, France had to reconnect with Paul Biya”, estimated on franceinfo Antoine Glaser, journalist specializing in Africa. Moreover, this is also the meaning of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the village of Yannick Noah: the former tennis champion and singer welcomes him to his leisure and education center located in a popular district of Yaoundé. , to promote “relations between the two countries”.
Establishing dialogue: this is also Emmanuel Macron’s objective in Benin, where he will go on Wednesday. Thursday, the Head of State will complete his trip to Guinea-Bissau, a small West African country plagued by chronic instability and whose President, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, is preparing to take the helm of the Economic Community of the States of West Africa (ECOWAS). In October 2021, during the visit of Umaro Sissoco Embalo in France, Emmanuel Macron had declared that his presence testified “of the renewal of the relationship between Paris and Bissau. The unprecedented visit of the Head of State to this country seems to be another confirmation of this, especially since France condemned, in February, the attempted coup against the Bissau-Guinean regime.
To create economic partnerships
Emmanuel Macron is not traveling alone during this state visit: he is accompanied by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the Armed Forces, Catherine Colonna and Sébastien Lecornu, the Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Olivier Becht, as well as the Secretary of State for Development, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou. According to our information, a large economic delegation is also following him. What set the tone of the exchanges on the spot.
Thus, in Cameroon, the menu of discussions will include the possibilities of French investment in agriculture, specifies the Elysée to AFP. Because the objective is to revive the economic relations between the two countries, in decline. France sees its influence eroding on the economic and commercial levels, facing China, India or Germany. French companies now only represent around 10% of the Cameroonian economy compared to 40% in the 1990s.
To address the fight against the jihadist threat
Another subject on the menu of discussions in Cameroon: security. Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya discussed this point while the jihadist threat in northern Cameroon, with Boko Haram, is still high. “We know, in terms of security, that France can help us with equipment. We need that”hopes Alfred, 40, driver and handler in Yaoundé, at the microphone of franceinfo.
The same theme will be addressed in Benin. Because the north of this country is also facing a multiplication of deadly attacks, since the jihadist threat extends from the Sahel to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.. Benin wants French support in terms of air support, intelligence and equipment, according to the Elysée.
Discussions will be in line with the declarations of the French president on July 13. He announced his desire to “rethink by autumn the whole [des dispositifs militaires de la France] on the African continent, whereas the Barkhane anti-jihadist force is in the process of completing its departure from Mali. saying they want “less posed and less exposed devices”Emmanuel Macron had judged that it was a “strategic necessity”.
To counter the influence of Russia in Africa
This trip also has the theme of the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. Indeed, one of Emmanuel Macron’s objectives is to reposition France on the African continent in the face of Russian ambitions. He will thus promote the international initiative Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission (Farm), launched in March, to promote the development of African agricultural production.
“We must intensify our military cooperation if we don’t want Yaoundé to fall into Russian orbit”, advocates a French diplomat in Opinion. Especially since Cameroon has just signed a defense agreement with Russia. “We see that the presidents of the former French colonies [le Cameroun oriental a été sous administration française entre 1916 et 1960] in particular from Central Africa, are turning more and more towards Russia and therefore there is a kind of re-engagement of Emmanuel Macron in these countries in the name of realpolitik”, analyzes the journalist Antoine Glaser.
To evoke the colonial past
This move is also symbolic from a historical point of view. Tuesday, in front of the press in Yaoundé, Emmanuel Macron asked “a joint work of Cameroonian and French historians” for “turn on the light” on the action of France in Cameroon during colonization and after independence, announcing the opening “In totality” French archives on “painful moments” and “tragic”.
A group of Cameroonian political parties called on Emmanuel Macron on Monday to recognize the “crimes of colonial France”. “We take the opportunity to wake up Cameroonians to the problem with France which is to put all the crimes of France on the table and settle it definitively if we want to have a peaceful relationship”declared Bedimo Kuoh, member of the African Movement for New Independence and Democracy (Manidem).
Before the country’s independence in 1960, the French authorities bloodily repressed the “maquis” of the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC), a nationalist party founded in the late 1940s and engaged in the struggle army against the colonizer. Several tens of thousands of pro-UPC militants were massacred by the French army.
The question is also sensitive in Benin, a French colony of 1894 to 1958 under the name of Dahomey. Thus, on Wednesday, the French delegation should visit the 26 royal treasures of Abomey returned by France.