The delicate keys, from relations with Biya to withdrawal from Mali
The country is engulfed by the civil war between the Anglophone separatists of western Cameroon and the national armed forces, a rebellion suffocated in blood by the president in power for 40 years: Paul Biya, now 89 years old.
An appeal published on The world by two researchers from the NGOs Human Right Watch and Amnesty International, Ilaria Allegrozzi and Fagbien Offner, invited Macron to clearly express his “concern” about the violations of human rights contested in Biya.
In Benin, where 27 July is expected, attention will shift to the earth alert. The West African republic is recording attacks, raising fears of a propagation of the jihadist rise that already holds Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali hostage. Another delicate key for the Elysée: Paris is moving towards the withdrawal of its troops from Bamako, in break with the coup junta that ousted the old government. Macron reiterates that it will not be a farewell, but a review of the commitment in the area to be clarified by the autumn.
In the meantime, the outcome is the farewell of the Paris troops from a mission that had become known as “French Afghanistan” for its duration and inconclusiveness, leaving a territory that has become the African (and global) epicenter of the jihadist limelight. The last stop, on July 28, is in Guinea Bissau, where Macron will discuss plans for the inauguration of a French school in a context that is however sensitive to political fibrillation.
Lavrov’s “other tour”
Macron’s diplomatic mission coincides with that of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, who is on a tour that winds its way through North, East and Central Africa. Russia has already started its penetration into the continent some time ago, also in the form of military agreements signed between local governments and contractors by Wagner: the private military company that is identified as an armed wing of the Kremlin, despite the fact that Moscow has always denied any official report.