A gradual withdrawal of the French army from the African continent. French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday, February 27, during a speech at the Élysée on the eve of an African tour, an upcoming “visible reduction” in French military personnel in Africa and a “new model of partnership” involving a “rise” of Africans.

“The transformation will begin in the coming months with a visible reduction in our numbers and a rise in power in these bases of our African partners,” said the head of state, who begins a tour of Central Africa on Wednesday, promising “an effort increase of France in terms of training and equipment”.

Emmanuel Macron also refused to see Africa as a reserved domain or a “competition” ground. Africa is not a “backyard”, we must move from a “logic” of aid to that of investment, said the Head of State, pleading for “a new balanced, reciprocal and responsible” with the countries of the African continent.

Emmanuel Macron said he showed “deep humility in the face of what is being played out on the African continent”, “a situation without precedent in history” with “a sum of dizzying challenges”. “From the climate security challenge to the demographic challenge with the young people who are arriving and to whom we must offer a future for each of the African States”, he listed, calling for “consolidating States and administrations, investing massively in the education, health, employment, training, energy transition”.

During his speech, Emmanuel Macron also announced “a framework law” to “carry out new restitutions” of works of art “for the benefit of African countries that request it”.

This law “will be proposed in the coming weeks by the Minister of Culture to our Parliament” and “will make it possible to establish the methodology and the criteria for proceeding” with these restitutions, “based on a cultural and scientific partnership to welcome and preserve these works. “, continued the Head of State, indicating that he hoped ” that this approach can be part of a broader dynamic and also a European dynamic “.

He also said he was “deeply concerned” by “allegations that the Moroccan authorities have corrupted members of the European Parliament”. Some voices in Morocco saw the hand of France in this when relations were already strained between Paris and Rabat, particularly concerning the status of Western Sahara. “Is this the doing of the government of France?” No ! Did France add fuel to the fire? No ! We must move forward despite these controversies, ”said the president.

Algeria for its part recalled “for consultations” its ambassador to France on February 8 to protest against the “illegal exfiltration” via Tunisia of the Franco-Algerian activist Amira Bouraoui. “I know I can count on the friendship and commitment of (Algerian) President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. We will move forward there too,” the Head of State continued. “I think there are a lot of people who have an interest in what we’ve been doing for years now with Algeria not succeeding,” he said without going any further.

“Well I have a very simple message: I will continue, this is not the first firedamp, I have had it before but we must continue like this, humbly, honestly”, he said in pointing in particular to the “enormous work on memory” carried out with Algeria or the visit of the Algerian Chief of Staff, Saïd Chengriha, in January to France.

French President Emmanuel Macron ruled on Monday that France had “in spite of itself” assumed “an exorbitant responsibility” in a decade of military engagement in Mali, and announced the end of “the pre-eminence of security” in the relationship with Africa .

France’s commitment to the anti-jihadist fight in the Sahel “will remain an immense pride shared with the allies who have joined us”, said Emmanuel Macron, referring to “the chronicle of our last decade of commitment in Mali, at the cost of the ultimate sacrifice”. .

But “it was not the role of France to provide, alone, political responses which had to take over from the military response”, he said. “We have despite ourselves assumed an exorbitant responsibility” in Mali, which has given arguments to opponents and allowed France to become “the ideal scapegoat”, he continued.

Emmanuel Macron, promised the end of a “cycle” marked by “the centrality of the security and military question”, which was “a pretext used by our opponents”. After nine years of presence in Mali, the French soldiers completed their withdrawal from the country in August, pushed out by a hostile junta which approached Russia and called on the sulphurous Russian paramilitary company Wagner, which Bamako denies. .

Relations between the two countries have gradually deteriorated over the past decade, then turned into open hostility after the two coups d’etat of 2020 and 2021 and the seizure of power by Malian soldiers.

The unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) “are not in dispute” and the war ravaging the east of this central African country “must not be a forgotten war” , French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday. “We are witnessing in eastern DRC an unacceptable regression,” the president said, as fighting raged between the Congolese army and the rebels of the M23, a predominantly Tutsi rebellion that Kinshasa accused of being supported by the Rwanda.

“The ongoing offensive of the M23 militia is a war that takes us back ten years, it has terrible consequences for the population,” said the head of state on the eve of a trip from Wednesday in Central Africa, including the DRC. The predominantly Tutsi M23 rebellion, dormant for nearly a decade, took up arms again in late 2021 and has since seized large swaths of territory in eastern DRC. Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of supporting it, which has been corroborated by UN experts, but Kigali denies it.

“The unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity of the Congo are not discussed”, hammered the French president, without commenting on the responsibility of Rwanda. “The first emergency is humanitarian and we are working on it with our European partners”, continued Emmanuel Macron, saying he was “convinced that the response must be collective”. “There are no double standards,” he said, referring to the war in Ukraine. “The war in eastern DRC must not be a forgotten war,” he said.