Passing through three capitals in as many hours, French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday embarked on an African tour aimed at renewing damaged ties.
In the Angolan capital, Luanda, Macron chaired an economic forum, attended by more than 50 French companies, and focused on agriculture.
“This corresponds to the idea I have of this economic partnership between the African continent and France,” Macron said of the 100 delegates.
Also read: The era of French intervention in Africa is over, Macron says in Gabon
“The mindset has changed,” he said, adding that France wants to find a solution that benefits both parties, rather than “deciding what is ready”.
France has for decades been involved in the petroleum industry in the Portuguese-speaking southern African country, which is one of the continent’s biggest producers of crude oil.
Macron’s visit provides an opportunity to explore cooperation in other sectors.
The two governments agreed to boost Angola’s agricultural sector, particularly “climate resilience and water security” in addition to helping transform the coffee sector, Macron said.
Angola, which imports a large part of the food it consumes, wants to strengthen its “sovereignty” and find new sources of income in the sector, according to the French presidency.
Also read: France’s Macron makes four-nation tour of central Africa
Macron will meet his Angolan counterpart Joao Lourenço before heading to the neighboring Republic of the Congo (also known as Congo-Brazzaville).
The visit is part of a drive to improve France’s relations with anglophones and Portuguese-speaking Africa.
– Anti-French sentiment –
He arrived in Luanda last Thursday from Gabon on the second leg of his tour.
Anti-French sentiment runs high in some of Africa’s former colonies as the continent becomes a renewed diplomatic battleground, with Russian and Chinese influence growing.
On Thursday Macron said the era of French intervention in Africa was over and there was no desire to return to the past.
“The age of Francafrique is over,” Macron said in Libreville, Gabon’s capital, referring to his post-colonial strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend Paris’ interests.
Also read: Macron says no apology to Algeria for colonization
After leaving Luanda, Macron will move to Congo, another former French colony, where Denis Sassou-Nguesso has ruled with an iron fist for nearly four decades.
On Thursday, Congolese rights groups called on the French president to raise concerns about Sassou-Nguesso and to demand the release of former presidential candidates Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and Andre Okombi Salissa.
The pair were each jailed for 20 years in 2016 for endangering national security after running against Sassou-Nguesso in a disputed presidential election that was followed by violence.
Macron in the DRC
Macron will visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which Belgium ruled during the colonial period.
President Felix Tshisekedi has been the leader of the DRC since January 2019, but he will be re-elected later this year, and here too the opposition has voiced reservations about the French leader’s visit.
The DRC has accused its smaller neighbor Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group in the east of the country, a charge Kigali denies.
Dozens of young Congolese protesters holding Russian flags rallied outside the French embassy in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday to denounce Macron’s visit.
France and its Western allies accuse the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which is involved in the war in Ukraine, is active in Mali and the Central African Republic, also once controlled by France.