The program will accelerate for French President Emmanuel Macron, who is traveling from March 1 to 5 to no less than four Central African countries, for a summit devoted to the protection of equatorial forests and to strengthen bilateral ties in a increasingly disputed sphere of influence. Thus, in Libreville, Gabon, on March 1 and 2, he will participate in the One Forest Summit devoted to the preservation and enhancement of the forests of the Congo River basin, the Elysée announced on Thursday, February 23, reports AFP .
With 220 million hectares of forest, the Congo Basin represents the second largest forest area and the second ecological lung on the planet after the Amazon across several countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon in particular).
From Africa to Brazil and Southeast Asia, these forests are now threatened by agricultural and industrial overexploitation and in some cases oil production.
Emmanuel Macron, who wishes to intensify relations with English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries on the continent, will then travel to Luanda on March 2 to launch a Franco-Angolan agricultural production partnership.
He will continue his tour in Brazzaville, Congo on March 2 and then in the Democratic Republic of Congo on March 3 and 4. In Kinshasa, the trip will be devoted to "deepening the Franco-Congolese relationship in the fields of education, health, research, culture and defense", indicated the French presidency.
This tour comes at a time when the influence of France is being shaken up by Russia and the group of Russian mercenaries Wagner in several French-speaking African countries, notably in Mali and the Central African Republic.
In July, Emmanuel Macron, who wants to make Africa one of the priorities of his second five-year term, toured Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau. Pointing to the war in Ukraine, he then accused Russia of being "one of the last colonial imperial powers" and of waging a new form of "hybrid warfare" around the world. A number of countries in the South, particularly in Africa, anxious to preserve their interests and considering that this war is not theirs, have refused to take a position on the Russian offensive that has been underway for a year now in Ukraine. It should be noted that in recent years, Paris has become the privileged target of the Russian camp, which does not hesitate to use fake news.
If during his first term, President Emmanuel Macron clearly displayed his desire to avoid the traditional French pre-square in West and Central Africa, the situation has changed and his second term is marked by a reinvestment in the once shunned countries. The objective is to defend French interests, and renew political, economic and security ties with its traditional partners, also courted by China, Russia, Turkey and the Gulf countries. And there is urgency, because beyond China or Russia, there is also competition between European countries. Gabon, a country of the former French backyard, joined the Commonwealth organization in 2022.
In any case, on the spot, this trip also arouses the anger of part of the Gabonese civil society and opposition, six months before the presidential election scheduled for the end of August. This opposition suspects Emmanuel Macron of wanting to bring, via this visit, his support to Ali Bongo Ondimba, in power since 2009 and whose re-election in 2016 is still disputed. "Rightly or wrongly, the Gabonese will interpret your arrival in their country as an expression of France's support for the regime in place, with a view to helping it stay in power," reads a letter dated January 10. , signed by the main leaders of opposition groups and civil society among the most virulent against the regime in place. A former independent French colony since 1960, this oil-rich Central African state of two million people has long been a key country for France on the continent.
The same suspicion could weigh on the trip of the French head of state to the Democratic Republic of Congo, while a presidential election is supposed to take place there in December.
