the last week over mozambique, many people still despised because that was once a cycling, but the rain has made the ground so saturated flood risk continues. ah, every 3 days, the woman is killed in the murder of women and unprecedented levels of domestic violence have shopped easily to the court. the violence is more violent, violent men are young. why does it keep happening? and what can be done to stop it? this is not deprived, i want my daughter and all the daughters to pay. that's not the country i want witness said miss cynthia, for me is very simply a question of power. on al jazeera french president, a menu alma crohn is visiting for african nations hoping to reset relations. but he faces competition for influence from others, including china, russia, and took here. so what kind of welcome will he get?

this is inside story. ah, hello, welcome to the program, i'm tom mccrae, french president. manuel mac ron is visiting for nations in central africa. he's hoping to regain influence in a continent where the former colonial power now faces competition from other nations. notably china and russia. micron says he wants to reset ties promising a new partnership of equals. he's visiting countries he has not been to before. gabon, angola, republic of congo, and democratic republic of congo. france has announced it scaling back its military presence on the continent, calling out of molly's central african republic and became faso with the government ordered them out. we'll have a lot to discuss with our guests. but 1st,

this report from paul brennan. after decades of colonialism and neo colonialism, it was francis withdrawal from marley last year and burkina faso this year, which in fact confirmed the shifting geo politics in central africa, french troops were forced to leave the military. gunter, in each of those countries opted for a new alliance with russia in the form of the mercenary wagner group. president macklin openly admit that mistakes were made in molly and his foreign nation tour of central africa will sell a more cooperative vision with host nations. cultural, scientific, and educational partnerships and military bases, where the french troops operate as partners rather than commanders. now how can he get somebody will get with hello? the reorganization is not meant to be a retreat to a disengagement. it will materials through an african musician or mutual operation of these big bases general dominate chunk on is the former head of the french military mission at the united nations. he agrees the importance of france dank

militarily engaged in the region. we have to have small teams or power, for example, to help this african country. this is exactly the case in jail, for example, where the parliament arcs, the french forces to stay and to fight in support of noun, join forces. that's probably the case also in chad where we put a big airbase in central africa itself. some see the rejection of french influences understandable, but nonetheless, alarming and irrational. yes, there is anger about european neo colonialism. however, the alliance is being offered by china and russia, bring their own issues, their wesson. what word has it views is position is it was ation of don't, don't be nation is very difficult, very early in our history because ah, when people are not rationally the what, like now we just have 11 goal. we want to get rid of france, want to keep,

get rid of the old system actually. and not realizing that an what is a head is not probably better, that one be at running away from resident macro and vaux on this. so admitting that for too long, france is regarded africa with what he described as the logic of rent. his new vision is to offer a more mutually beneficial partnership, but he faces an uphill task to turn around that wave of anti french sentiment. pull brennan, i'll jazeera paris. ah. okay, let's bring in our guests in paris. alarm mala, alsa and journalist based and france covering events there and a foreign correspondent for many, many years. in the i own day, marie roger below president of africa international media group and an africa says analyst. and in johannesburg, marissa lorenzo a political risk analyst, specializing in southern africa. a welcome to you will. thank you very much for

being on inside story today. laura mclean. coldest. the start of a new balanced relationship. what does he ultimately trying to achieve with this to i think he wants to reverse the trend, which is france being thrown out of molly being thrown out of going to grew out of looking at faso. and the french being disliked, distrusted by popular opinion throughout, especially in west africa, where they've, they've been making and breaking regimes since the 2nd world war and independence and the old policy which started on the general. the goal after the war was called the last week, which was made one word of the names of france and africa. and when you look at the heads of state who michael, you sing and god born, alley bongo and his father was present before the bunker family has been running

for 56 years. in uncle, of the same party has been in power since 1975 since independence in the republic of congo, congo janice, and get so has been in power for 43 years. the democratic republic of congo his last day. felix just shows that katie will try to you is michael's visit, i think for his own political strength on the one hand, he wants democracy. he talks a lot about the youth of the country. he gave a very important speech in what to do 5 years ago. to young people, and at the same time, he's proceed to be an ally of these old and of craddick regimes. so that's a difficult thing for him. but he really wants to change the relationship. he says he's going to reduce the number of french soldiers in africa,

especially in french speaking west africa. he will not touch the numbers in g booty because that's a very strategic place for all these reasons. but he's going to to reduce the number of soldiers and he says, by the end of this year, there will be no french bases per se. in africa. they're either going to turn them into millichap military academies, where they will educate african soldiers, or they will co manage them with the government of the host countries. so he's trying to get a lower profile. he also wants to sell weapons probably to africa, but he'll have a hard time there because the russian and chinese and turkish weapons are much cheaper than the french weapons he may offer help military help for example, intelligence, satellite images, and fire support to these african regimes but he just, basically this is a good will mission. it's 882 trip to africa. it should be noted. he realizes how

important africa is to the future of europe. and he also believes very strongly that if you don't solve the problems of africa in africa, you will have to deal with the migrants coming across the mediterranean. marie, what sort of reception is more likely to get when he visits africa? well, i would say it would be probably like the, the announcement off his visit. you know, prior to that he had a very much a nouns and a anticipated speech which was supposed to tell us about the new thinking, the new policy, his new african policy. i'm going to say i'm hearing yolande, and i see that was no news. nobody really was interested in listening

and that that was a very big contrast between now and the way people are way not interested here. and the way that much a lot of height at which was in paris prior to these speech that the, you know, as a surprise you, the new was there was no hot around has visit. well, you know, when the french president comes to an african country, while it's always something special, but i don't think people are expecting much from me. so you know, the official topic is environment is about protecting the voice and so on. but to most observers, to most that we're going to follow this and they see that mccaul is going to

central africa, where on the phone say for you still strong, and i know where there is little more little protest well, against france, even though the french at the anti french sentiment still there, so it's like they're coming to already reach countries and trying to rescue include the influence of france in an area where you don't have very strong conflict about them. except of course, central african republic, where the paramilitary group back now is what installed marissa and we also heard laura talk there a little bit about mccaul needing to change the thread. what do you think he needs to do to, to make this a successful trip?

so i don't think that this trip is going to be as difficult of what micron is phased and other west african countries where france has effectively been kicked out front as a relatively good relationship with gabon. he's going to the environmental summit. they, it's not a very politically charged event. when he comes down to a girl, i also think that this will be a lot easier for him. and then when it comes to the to congos, i also don't think that he's going to run into too much trouble today. but i think that we need to look at what is his political aim here. and the 1st very obvious one is like laura mentioned to reverse this trend of the backlash against france. but i think that is one very important political aim. but i think the other one is that, you know, frank needs to keep a kind of base of the support in africa. and what he's realized is that gabon is the one country in west africa that is not pushed back against france. he realizes that the d o c is also very important to the west future because of all the minerals that it holds. and then he needs a girl or because a girl and president wrong or in. so it's actually a very important mediator between the d. o c and grew other conflict. so there's

actually quite a lot of quite a lot on his plate. and of course yes, the focus is to reverse this trend. it is to stop this backlash against front. but there's a lot of political agenda going on at the same time. larry, you touched on this a little bit before, and, you know, there's a large african population within france. what's the perception there about this trip and do they think that you know, that it's something that he actually needs to do at this point in time? or does he need to deal with some of the issues back home? my clothes axes, cited the large african population in france as an advantage that he has in improving relations with african countries. he says he wants to use them exploit them in a positive way. he talked about, he said, we must recognize the african part of france. now that, that's going to upset people on the far right for example, but i think that to,

to young africans in france, that's probably music to their ears. and he also wants to encourage entrepreneurship and loans for investment and in africa and this sort of thing. so i think that that dynamic young africans in france will see this as an opportunity . he also, it should be said wants to european european eyes this relationship. because for one thing, if, if he does so, it will ease that sort of that anti french tension. because it becomes somehow diffuse within if it's europe that is engaging with africa rather than the old, colonial power france. and it also gives, gives us sort of critical mass for big investment, structural infrastructure projects and, and that sort of thing. you know, the research just want to talk a little bit about the military influence that the france has gotten the scaling

back of, of troops in the, the 6 military vices. that will be, that will stay open, but it can be transformed. it's training academies. i mean, what does france lose by scaling back in that? why and why do you think that doing it now? so i think what font news is, is of course some of the power and the influence that it does exert a certain african countries. but of course, france doesn't have a choice at the moment because at seeing with what happened in money and with what's happening because fossil that it really has to take charge and it has to do something else, it might face further backlash. the other thing is that micron is not going to apologize for colonialism. he's not going to start to issue reparations. if we look at how he's responded to al jerry a call over the years for an apology, we've always seen that mac khan and even other french presidents have always fallen just short of that. they've experienced shame. i mean, so they've expressed shame. they've said it was a brutal period, you know,

in history, but they've never really gone out and made a full apology. and i think that that in itself could also be a dangerous thing to do because francis prisons, across colonial africa was so massive. and of course, once you start apologizing, then you need to start thinking about reparations. and european countries are only going to give reparations to the former colonies. if that they can ensure that that money is used in some way that will benefit them. for example, in germany gave namibia reparation for the $904.00 herrera genocides. that money is actually going to be directed to infrastructure that germany will eventually benefit from so front host, quite a big issue with that and i think skating back military basis, this is kind of the best solution that he could come to out of what is quite a difficult situation, we spoke a little bit about it before the growing russian chinese and turkey influence in africa lara that we've seen the foreign minister from russia level going to charm

offensive on his own to of africa just last month that last month it's obviously a huge concern to the french. can you explain this, the scale of the russian influence in africa now and how consuming that is to max on and the europe its enormous. i mean, the fact no group, the provisions militiamen or mercenaries are very deeply planted into down. and molly, in fact, it's probably fine too bad now that the french were expelled from mali. and they're also very engaged in propaganda against the french. i mean, really mendacious, propaganda against the french. i think that the war ukraine has diminished out a bit because as you know, wagner is, is very deeply involved in the don boston in the whole or ukraine where they're responsible for, for some horrendous war crimes. as they have been in africa,

the line that one gets from the eighty's a is that the inhabitants of africa will learn very quickly up their cost. they're much better off the french with the french than they are with the russians with bag. no, i wanted if i could, i'd like to come back to something clear so sad about michael is not going to apologize. in algeria, he actually said, france committed crimes against humanity in algeria. and there was a huge uproar in france. this was went down very badly, especially on the right. i don't, i think you'll be very careful what he says in particular, just to avoid an out quite like that. but he has made some serious gestures. he gave back works of art to be now. and he's also opened up the archives concerning rwanda, where the french would choose of complicity in the genocide against the hutus. ah, i'm sorry i against the tutsis and i'll go to just so he will make,

i don't know if he will on this specific trip, but he has and will continue to make important gestures. okay, we'll see what comes out of that. but he can just tell us about the russian disinformation campaigns that they have been unleashing through africa and just how effective they have been. ok, you know, the thing is that science wants to focus everything on russia and propaganda of russia. but what i want to say that and just be that russia and the presence all the, the increasing presence of russia. these due to grievances and dissatisfaction with france and not the country for russia has been a long spending pattern in africa. you know,

many countries have our relationship with russia since before independence and during the where, where the soviet union used to have independence movement or freedom fighters. so, and then they faded away during the cold war in a way, the way supporting part of the country. so great that now during, for a long, long time, many other countries, european countries, germany, russia, and all this did not, they had to go to african countries to a phone call from countries. there were like, if they want to start some important operations even be less than or do they want to make sure france is not against. so it was really the game is france and we have to make a local file and make sure we,

we don't double bother friends too much because they also have all their relationship with friends, russia, france, and germany with one of the 2 of them going forwards about russia's growing influence. okay, what, when for what, the 1st a big example we're in, sub saharan africa is the central african republic. you know, there where the new regime came after the election lived for central idea. and the country was under embargo, a weapon embargo because they had so many conflict. so the unit you what you and the united nations decided no weapons going there. but what happens was that then revenues where getting weapons on illegal ways and the official government wanted this embargo to believe it. and they asked friends to help them live. that

embargo and friends was not really interested. and he said, and they say, well they is it, why don't you ask russia they can give you some legal arms on it, and then what they need. i'm making a long story short. so that's why they just do russia, russia where it's like, oh, he didn't really believe i'm said to do to come to us. yes. and that the way they came, i just want to bring her now i. 6 i just want to bring in marissa here, if i might just, just on this point. i mean, what are the risks for some of these african countries in siding with russia? you know, we know all about the wagner griffin and what the capable of, what, what risks of it here, for some of these countries in these governments that i guess getting to bid with, with russia. so i think the 1st important thing to note is that we have to be very careful of blaming russia as being d d, stabilizing force in africa,

what russia has done. and what the wagner tribute group is still doing is that they are taking advantage of failed states. so essentially, there has been a power vacuum. and i mean, we can look at why this has been colonialism left the states and complete the survey. it made it very, very easy when you government to come in and be corrupt. there was not political will to actually govern properly. then, especially in west africa, we've had the rise of extremist groups over a decade now. we serve. so i'll kinda, we've got isis and other countries, you've got both of them and what russia come in and donald fagen group has done. and obviously these are 2 separate things, even though sometimes they can overlap, is that they've come in and they've taken advantage of that. but they've only been able to take advantage of that because they is essentially state failure. you can come and take control of a strong state. the other thing that i want to point out that i think we have to add to this debate so that we don't become to one side is that african countries have also changed the way they approached their relationship with foreign powers. it's not the cold war anymore where you have to fight with the us. so you have to

side with the soviet union. you don't have to be loyal to a former colonial power because that's the only way you're going to get trade in on . you can actually pick and choose. now yes, we've got some countries like between a 1st one molly, that will be very outright in the support of russia, but you have other countries that are saying, let's hear what russia has to say. we don't necessarily have to accept them wholeheartedly, but we can hear wouldn't have to say because we can also hear what france has to say. and i think what we're seeing is, yes, it's going to be very difficult for african countries going forward. but i don't think we should be saying things like, if they thought things were bad under france, wait till it's under rush at the point is that african government without making a mistake or not? you know, i don't think that's necessarily i'll place to say it, but i think what we have to say is that with the changing future in a very, very different way. yeah. and that essentially france is not going to be a dominant player. it's going to be one of many players going forward. and just on one of those other players that's also heavily involved in africa. laura, can you just tell us a little bit about china's influence on the continent?

many you cannot make. i mean, for example, china is now a bigger trading partner with algeria than frances, which is quite mine bothering when you think that algeria was, was an integral part of france until independence in 900. 62. china is in exchange for the natural, the sources of the mineral resources. in particular, these african countries are building factories industry, sending large numbers of chinese immigrants, you know, to run them. so whereas the russian influences mainly military, the chinese influence is economic industrial financial. yeah, marissa, just before we finish, i want to get an idea of what you think a successful trip will look like for mac chrome. i think if france can keep in place, for example,

some of the trade agreements that it has with the d o. c, that would be very good for it fronted the very old trading partner with angola. i think that relationship is relatively secure. it's important that he keeps it that way because of the amount of france, french, oil and gas majors that operate in the country. so i think if this cordial trips, if he keeps those trade agreement and intact, if maybe he commits money to him towards the bonds carbon credit program. i think small gestures like that would be a final success. i don't think we're going to see anything major coming out of these. he has kind of chosen what you could call, i suppose, quiet reasonable governments to engage with compared to what front is faced in west africa. and i think this trip is just re entrenched those relations, get some small agreements out and i think he would be, he would be happy with that marie version. if you could just outline how you think this trip will be seen as the success from within africa. i don't think he would

change anything. do you know that countries which i have visited the head of data that we have so much? rebecca said that we had for breakfast and gabrielle is having an election this year and the position was afraid that this visit might look as an endorsement of the outgoing president. so he will be happy about that. but the main issue about the anti french sentiment and how can branch can enhance it was asian in africa. i don't think it would change grade much in the areas anyway where it prompts is being rejected that areas like that. and yeah, see where the sentiment is not the same is not a form of a master. and maybe, you know, they are not, they happy because france is not criticizing and condemning outright the invasion or eastern part of go by the m 2123

levels. and so if they stay in that position that they don't want to be unpleasant, wanda, and well, nobody will be satisfied. thank you so much and we will have to leave it there unfortunately. but will be fascinating to see how to applies out. thanks to all of our guests, laura marlo marie rochelle, below, and marissa lorenzo. thank you, and thank you for watching. you can see the program again any time by visiting our website, al jazeera dot com, and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter al, handlers at a j inside story from a toll mccrae and the entire team here. uh huh. bye for now.

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