In early March, French President Emmanuel Macron embarked on a four-day visit to Central Africa covering Gabon, Angola, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). His visit aimed to strengthen relations with African countries, but it sparked a lot of discussions. This was especially due to Macron's new African strategy and the DRC President Felix Tshisekedi's reminder of France's colonial history in Africa.

In Gabon, the first stop of the tour, Macron participated in the "One Forest Summit" and spoke about the environmental security and sustainable development of Africa. During contacts in Angola, cooperation in the field of agriculture was emphasized. In Brazzaville, where Macron stayed for a short time before he went to the DRC, the focus was on economic cooperation and new partnerships. However, it is possible to say that Macron's speech in the Democratic Republic of Congo left its mark on this tour.

As it is known, there have been bloody conflicts between the DRC and the M23 rebel group for a long time. Apart from the countries of the region, the international community is also taking initiatives to end this conflict. The European Union, the United Nations and the United States called on the actors of the conflicts to reach a cease-fire as soon as possible and build peace in the region. But on the other hand, the DRC claims that the M23 rebels are supported by the Rwandan state. Recently, the EU's 20 billion euros ($21.75 billion) worth of financial support to Rwanda for the fight against terrorism was met with a huge reaction from Kinshasa.

In this last stop of Macron’s Africa tour, tensions escalated when he mentioned the M23 clashes at a joint news conference with the DRC president because DRC claims that the military aid of France and Westerners to Rwanda was transferred to the M23 rebels by the Kigali administration. In response to the anti-French demonstrations in Kinshasa and the mention of the M23 issue at the news conference, Macron said, "Since 1994, you have never been able to restore the military, security or administrative sovereignty of your country. It's a reality. We must not look for culprits outside."

Upon Macron's words, reactions arose from Tshikesekedi and later from various African countries' leaders against France.

In summary, Macron could not complete his African tour, which he hoped would repair his damaged relations with Africa and start a new rapprochement. Macron's four-country African tour and the "New African Strategy" had four main objectives: to break the increasing Russian influence in Africa, to protect its own area of economic interest against the huge economic influence of China, to restore the prestige of France, which was damaged in Africa, and to reduce opposition to military policies in Africa in the French public opinion.

Francafrique: A thing of past

Macron has promised to abandon the "Francafrique" policy toward Africa and establish new relations built on the principle of win-win, free from Western arrogance. However, in the current period, anti-France sentiments have increased in the former colonies due to the failure of the Macron government, especially in security policies, and its economic domination on the continent. So much so, that due to the strained relations with former French colonies such as Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso, French soldiers had to withdraw from these countries and France lost prestige in the region. Then, these states cooperated with Russia, which is seen as France's biggest rival on the continent, in the military arena.

After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia turned to Africa to find political support against its isolation in the international arena and to regain its declining economic power. The signing of more than 20 military agreements between Russia and African countries since 2015 can be seen as an indicator of how rapidly relations have developed.

After the coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, African peoples, who are hopeful of military cooperation between the junta regimes and Russia, hold the Russian flag in demonstrations and shout hostile slogans against France. After anti-French sentiments and military cooperation intentions with Russia in some other African countries, Macron had to try to persuade African states to cooperate with new promises in the military arena in order to increase his prestige and to break the influence of Russia. Especially after the Ukraine war, the U.N. votes and the support for Russia in some African states, France and the Western states made urgent attempts to prevent Russia in the region.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and France's foreign and defense ministers, Catherine Colonna and Sebastien Lecornu, went to various African countries and tried to prevent support for Russia. In this process, France started to offer new promises in the field of security to African states, especially to its former colonies. In addition, there are frequent criticisms against the presence of soldiers in Africa in French public opinion. Because the French people, who have been struggling with many economic problems, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, are reacting to their country's high-cost military policies overseas.

After this requirement, Macron made statements about his new military policies toward Africa. According to these statements, France will soon reduce the number of French troops from around 6,000 across the continent. Considering the security perspectives of African countries, new military cooperation will focus more on training and technical support. France will share powers and responsibilities with the host country at bases in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Gabon. It may even be possible to cooperate with foreign actors if host nations desire. However, only French military elements will be present in the strategically located French base in Djibouti. Within the scope of the fight against terrorism, it is planned to train the soldiers of West African countries at the base in Abidjan. But the new military strategy is rather vague. It has not been announced yet when the applications will start or by how much the number of soldiers will be reduced. Also, according to backstage reports, some senior French soldiers are not happy with Macron's new military strategies.

Economic cooperation

Another aspect of Macron’s new Africa strategy is the economy. On his last trip, Macron reiterated France's intention to realize new models of cooperation with African states focused on environmental security, and sound and sustainable development. Although Macron cannot compete with China, which has huge economic power in Africa, Macron aims to assure his own economic sphere. However, African states now want to cooperate with the economic models they will develop themselves. They are uncomfortable with the imposition of economic models by external actors. Since Macron's approach has shown that he has not moved away from the (neo)colonialist and bossy attitude, economic relations to be established with the initiative will not yield the expected result.

As a result, the strategies Macron developed to regain the prestige and power he lost in Africa are unlikely to yield the desired results in the near future. There are uncertainties about the scope and the content of the strategies and the implementation schedule. While anti-France sentiment is increasing, especially in the former colonial countries, a great global struggle continues in Africa. In this competitive environment fueled by the Ukraine-Russia war, Westerners aim to limit the influence of Russia and China on the continent. On the other hand, new actors such as Türkiye, India, Brazil, Israel and Japan are trying to increase their influence in Africa.