Macron Bids Farewell to Age of Francafrique

On Wednesday, Macron kicked off a five-day tour of Gabon, Angola, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to the Elysee Palace, the visit aims to enhance bilateral cooperation with countries of the region. However, the populations of these nations are voicing their protest against his visit.

The age of Francafrique has ended, and now France is a "neutral interlocutor" on the African continent, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday in Libreville, Gabon.

"The age of Francafrique is over," he claimed, adding: "Sometimes I have the feeling that mindsets are not evolving at the same pace with us when I read, I hear, [and] I see that France is still ascribed intentions that it does not possess, nor does it have anymore."

The statement by Macron, who is now on a trip to Gabon, Angola, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, comes following France losing its military presence on the continent.

Earlier, Burkina Faso and Mali terminated their bilateral military agreements with France and demanded that Paris withdraw its troops from the soil of these West African countries.

Another Sahelian country, Niger, also saw public protests against the presence of French troops in the state.

After the French troop pullout, Macron announced that the French government was hammering out new plans to reorganize France's military presence within the framework of a new security partnership.

"Our model must not be anymore military bases like those we have now," Macron said in his Monday speech at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris. "Tomorrow, our (military) presence will go through bases, schools, academies, which will be jointly managed" by French and African staff.

However, the new plans have already been criticized by observers.

Recently, in an interview with Sputnik, Francois Asselineau, a former top French civil servant and political observer, called Macron's African tour an indication of emergency and said France's leadership lacks vision for the continent.

"This [visit] is an emergency, one might say. France is rapidly losing all influence in Africa, despite the fact that the French language has for 150 years been the only vehicle for the very many ethnic groups [in central Africa] to speak to each other. It is still often the language of the administration there, but that is changing rapidly," Asselineau explained.

Meanwhile, protestors in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo are rallying against Macron's visit.

That said, in the DRC, the populace held a rally, displaying portraits of Vladimir Putin and waving Russian flags in front of the French Embassy in Kinshasa, the country's capital, while people in Gabon took to the streets banging pots and pans.

According to one of the organizers of the demonstration against Macron, Privat Ngomo, speaker of the Federation of the Civil and Anti-Francafrique Movements of Gabon, the protesters called on France not to intervene in the internal affairs of Gabon.

During his visit to Gabon, Macron took part in the One Forest Summit in Libreville, dedicated to preserving the African country's forests.

Elaborating on that, Privat Ngomo questioned the true intention of the French president's visit.

"We oppose his visit because we know that in fact it is not a question of ecosystems and the preservation of animal or plant biodiversity that interests Macron," the politician states. "Macron is a capitalist, and it is the capitalists who have destroyed the planet with the over-exploitation of raw materials and resources."

In an earlier interview with Sputnik, Dr. Felix Ndahinda, honorary assistant professor at the University of Rwanda, pointed out that "France seeks to be, or seeks to remain, a major player" in Africa, "where growing [international] competition has eroded [French] influence".