On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron will lay out France’s revised approach to the continent of Africa, where anti-French sentiment is at an all-time high in some of its former territories.
Two days prior to a four-nation tour of central African nations, he delivered an address at the presidential palace as part of Paris’ efforts to counter the region’s expanding Chinese and Russian influence.
Angola, the Republic of Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, and then Gabon, where Macron will attend an environmental conference, will come after Angola.
The president, who has maintained that Africa is a priority of his second term in office, visited Cameroon, Benin, and Guinea-Bissau in July.
The French head of state, who was re-elected last year, is set to unveil on Monday “his priorities and his method to deepen the partnership between France, Europe and the African continent”, the presidential office has said.
His address follows a 2017 speech to students at a university in Burkina Faso in which he pledged to break away from his country’s former post-colonial policies on the continent of more than 50 countries.
He criticized “the crimes of European colonization” and called for a “truly new relationship” between Africa and Europe.
