With our special correspondent in Luanda, Paulina Zidi
Continuation of French President Emmanuel Macron’s African tour. After two days in Gabon, where it was mainly regarding the environment, with a summit on the protection of tropical forests, the French head of state arrived on March 2, 2023 in Luanda in Angola. A visit that should have taken place three years ago, but which has been postponed several times due to the health crisis.
This trip is part of France’s desire to strengthen ties with new partners on the continent. A visit where the economy occupied part of the morning with a forum devoted mainly to agriculture. Indeed, Angola wishes to diversify its economytoday totally dependent on the oil sector and above all to guarantee its food security in a country that imports a lot.
France has therefore made a commitment to the agricultural sector, notably with aid from the French Development Agency (AFD) of 200 million euros for a climate resilience programme.
The two presidents, João Lourenço and Emmanuel Macron, then met for an hour to discuss political and diplomatic issues, including the crisis in eastern DRC.
Express and complex stage in Brazzaville
Emmanuel Macron then continues his marathon with two other countries on the program, since following Angola, the president flies away for a few hours in Congo-Brazzaville. An express visit where an interview with President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is on the program. And this is perhaps the stage where it will be the most difficult for the Élysée to play the ” new software which President Macron spoke of on February 27 in his speech before this African tour. Indeed, he arrives in a country which has not known a democratic alternation since 1992 with at its head one of the oldest African presidents still in office.
We expect President Emmanuel Macron to remind us that it is unbearable to see prisoners of conscience in prison. I recall that both, Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and André Okombi Salissa, were condemned with totally farcical trials.
Maître Norbert Tricaud, member of the collective of lawyers of Congolese political opponents Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and André Okombi Salissa, imprisoned for undermining the internal security of the State
He must also meet the French community there for an intervention under the sign of memory, that of the role of Congo-Brazzaville during the Second World War.
And then in the evening, Emmanuel Macron will take off for the last leg of this tour. A fairly short flight, just the river to cross to get to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In Libreville, a Macron-Touadéra meeting, in the presence of Ali Bongo
On the sidelines of this tour in Central Africa, the French President also met on March 2, 2023 in Gabon with his Central African counterpart, Faustin Archange Touadéra, in the presence of the Gabonese President. It was at the presidential palace in Libreville that the two heads of state met, in the presence of Ali Bongo. A brief interview. Information confirmed by a source close to the Elysee Palace and a high-ranking source in Libreville. On the other hand, nothing has yet filtered on the content of the discussions between Faustin Archange Touadéra and Emmanuel Macron.
