ancestors, on al jazeera. >> french president emmanuel macron is visiting four african nations hoping to reset relations. he faces competition for influence from china, russia, and turkiye. what kind of welcome will he get? this is inside story. >> welcome, i am tom mccray. a menu in is visiting four

nations in central africa, hoping to regain influence in a continent where the former colonial power faces competition from other nations like china and russia. macron says he wants to reset ties promising a new partnership of equals. he is visiting countries he has not been to before. france has announced it is stealing -- scaling back its military presence, pulling out of mali and burkina faso, where the government ordered them out. first, this report from paul brennan. paul: after decades of colonialism and neocolonialism, it was france's withdrawal from molly and burkina faso which confirmed the shifting geopolitics in central africa. french troops were forced to leave and the military junta opted for a new alliance with russia.

president macron admits mistakes were made in mali and his four nation tour will sell a more cooperative vision, cultural and scientific partnerships and military bases where the french operate as partners rather than commanders. >> [translated] the reorganization is not meant to be a retreat or disengagement. it will be the mutual operation of these big bases. paul: this general is the former head of the french military mission at the united nations. he agrees with the importance of france staying engaged. >> we have to have small teams, in part for example to help this african country. this is the case in niger, where the parliament asked french forces tuesday and fight in support of nigerian forces. that's probably the case also in chad, where we built a big air

base. paul: in central africa some see the rejection of french influence as understandable but alarming and irrational. there is anger about european neocolonialism, however the alliance is offered by china and russia bring their own issues. >> the western world has abused its position of domination. it's a very difficult period in our history because when people are not rational, they just have one goal. we want to get rid of the old system, not realizing what is ahead is not probably better than what they are running away from. paul: president macron embarks on this tour, admitting for too long france has regarded africa with the logic of rent. his new vision is a more

mutually beneficial partnership but he faces an uphill task to turn around and buy french sentiment. -- turnaround anti-french sentiment. tom: let's bring in our guests. in paris, an author and journalist covering events there and a foreign correspondent for many years. and the president of africa international media group and an african affairs analyst. in johannesburg, a political risk analyst specializing in southern africa. thank you for being on inside story. lara, in called this the start of a new balanced relationship. what is he trying to achieve? >> i think he wants to reverse the trend, which is france being thrown out of mali, being thrown out of burkina faso, and the

french being disliked, distrusted by popular opinion, especially in west africa, where they have been making and breaking regimes since independence. the old policy that started under general de gaulle after the war was one word, the names france and africa. when you look at the heads of state macron will be seeing, in gabon, that family has been running gabon 456 years. in angola, the same party has been in control since independence. in the republic of the congo, the leadership has been in power for 43 years. the democratic republic of the

congo, the leader will try to use macron's visit for his own political strength. in on the one hand wants democracy. he talks a lot about the youth of the country. he gave a very important speech five years ago to young people. at the same time he is perceived to be an ally of the old undemocratic regimes, so that's difficult for him. he wants to change the relationship. he says he is going to reduce the number of french soldiers in africa, especially french-speaking west africa. he will not touch the numbers in djibouti because that's a very strategic place. he is going to reduce the number of french soldiers. he says by the end of this year there will be no french bases in africa. they are either going to turn them into military academies,

where they will educate african soldiers, or they will comanage them with governments of the host countries. he is trying to get a lower profile. he wants to sell weapons to africa but he will have a harder time because the russian, chinese, and turkish weapons are cheaper than the french weapons. he may offer military help, intelligence, satellite images, and fire support to these african regimes. basically this is a goodwill mission. it's his 18th trip to africa. he realizes how important africa is to the future of europe and he believes strongly if you don't solve the problems of africa in africa, you will have to deal with migrants coming across the mediterranean. tom: what kind of reception is

macron likely to get when he visits africa? >> i would say it would be like the announcement of his visit. prior to that announced and anticipated speech, which was supposed to tell us about the new african policy, that was no news. nobody really was interested in listening. that was a very big contrast between the way people were here and in a lot of hype which was in paris prior to this speech. tom: did that, as a surprisetom:

that there was no hype around his visit? >> when the french president comes to an african country, it's always something special. i don't think people are expecting much from it. the official topic is environment, is about protecting the forest. to most observers, to most africans they see that macron is going to center africa -- central africa where there is little protest against friends, even though the anti-france sentiment is there. they are going to oil-rich

companies and trying to include the influence of france in an area where they don't have a strong conflict, except the central african republic, where a paramilitary group is well installed. tom: we heard lara talk about in needing to change the thread. what do you think he needs to do to make this a successful trip? >> i don't think this trip is going to be difficult -- as difficult as what macron has faced. france has a relatively good relationship with gabon and he is going to the environmental summit. when he comes to angola, i think this will be a lot easier. when it comes to the two condgos, i don't think he is

going to run into much trouble. the first and obvious one is to reduce the trend of backlash against friends. that is one important political aim, but the other one is france needs to keep a base of support in africa. he has realized gabon is the one country in west africa that has not pushed back against france. he has realized the drc is important because of the minerals it holds. he needs angola because the president is an important mediator. there is quite a lot on his plate. the focus is to stop this backlash against france but there is a lot of political agendas at the same time. tom: lara, you touched on this before. there is a large african population within france. what is the perception about this trip?

do they think it is something he actually needs to do or does he need to deal with some of the issues back home? >> macron has cited the large african population in france as an advantage he has in improving relations with african countries. he says he wants to exploit them in a positive way. he says we must recognize the african part of france. that's going to upset people on the far right, for example. i think the young africans in france, that's probably music to their ears. he also wants to encourage entrepreneurship and loans for investment in africa and that sort of thing. i think dynamic young africans in france will see this as an opportunity. he also wants to europeanize

this relationship. if he does so, it will ease that anti-french tension, because it becomes somehow diffuse if it is europe engaging with africa rather than the old colonial power of france. it also gives a critical mass for big investment projects and that sort of thing. tom: i want to talk a little about the military influence that france has gotten, the scaling back of troops and the military bases that are going to be transformed into training academies. what does france lose by scaling back that way and why do you think they are doing it now? >> i think what france loses is the power and influence it does exert over certain african

countries, but france doesn't have a chance because it is seeing with what happened in mali and burkina faso that it has to take charge and do something, else it might face further backlash. macron is not going to apologize for colonialism, not going to issue reparations. if we look at how he has responded to algeria's call for apology, macron and other french presidents have fallen short of that. they have experienced shame, they have said it was a brutal period in history, but they have never really gone out and made a full on apology. that could also be a dangerous thing to do because france's presence across colonial africa was so massive. when you start apologizing, you need to think about reparations. france is only going to give reparations to former colonies if they can ensure the money is

used in some way that will benefit them. when germany gave namibia reparations for the 1904 genocide, that money is directed toward infrastructure germany will eventually benefit from. france has a big issue with that and scaling back military bases is the best solution they can come to. tom: we spoke about the growing russian, chinese, and turkiye influence in africa. we have seen the foreign minister, sergei lavrov, go on his own tour of africa just last month. this is a huge concern to the french. can you explain the scale of russian influence to africa and how concerning that is to macron and the rest of europe? >> its enormous. the mercenaries are deeply

implanted in sudan and mali. it is probably thanks to wagoner that the french were expelled from mali and were engaged in propaganda against the french. i think the war in ukraine has diminished that a bit because as you know wagoner is very deeply involved in the donbass and the war in ukraine, where they are responsible for her were crimes, as they have been in -- for karen this were crimes. the inhabitants of africa will learn very quickly that they are better off with the french than the russians, with wagoner. i would like to come back to something clarissa said about macron is not going to apologize. in algeria, he said france committed crimes against

humanity in algeria and there was a huge uproar in france. this went down very badly, especially on the right. i think he will be very careful in what he says to avoid an outcry like that. he has made some serious gestures. he gave back works of art and has opened up the archives concerning rwanda, where the friends were accused of complicity in the genocide against the tutis. he will make -- i don't know if he will on this trip -- but he has and will continue to make important gestures. tom: we will see what comes out of that. marie, can you tell us about the russian disinformation campaigns they have been unleashing through africa and how effective they have been?

>> the thing is that france wants to focus everything on russia and the propaganda of russia. russia and the increasing presence of russia is due to grievances with friends. -- with france. russia has been a long-standing partner in africa. many countries have relationships with russia since before independence. the soviet union used to help the independence movement or freedom fighters, and then they faded away to bring the cold war

in a way supporting parts of the country created the cold war. for a long time, many european countries -- germany, russia, and others -- did not dare to come to african countries from former francophone countries. if they want to start some important operations, they want to make sure france is not against that. the is france and we have to make a localphile and make sure we don't disturb france to much, because we also have other relationships with france. tom: what about going forward with russia's growing influence? >> the first big example in sub-saharan africa is the

central african republic. the new regime came after election and the country was under embargo, a weapon embargo, because they had so many conflicts. the united nations decided no weapons going there. we are getting weapons in illegal ways. the government wanted this embargo to be lifted and they asked france to help them lift that embargo. france was not really interested. they said, why don't you ask russia? that's what they did. making a long story short. they turned to russia. we told you to come to us. tom: i just want to bring in

marissa here, if i may. what are the risks for some of these african countries in siding with russia? we know all about the wagoner group and what they are capable of. what risks are there for some of these countries and governments that get into bed with russia? >> i think the first important thing to note is we have to be very careful of blaming russia as being the destabilizing force in africa. what russia has done and what the wagoner group is still doing is taking advantage of failed states. there has been a power vacuum. we can look at wide. colonialism left these states in complete disarray. there was not political will to govern properly. we have had the rise of extremist groups for over a decade now.

what russia, or the wagoner group, has done -- and obviously these are separate things even though they can overlap -- is taken advantage of that. they have only been able to take advantage of that because there is state failure. you can't take control of a strong state. the other thing we have to add to this debate is african countries have changed the way they approach their relationship with foreign powers. it's not the cold war anymore where you have to side with the u.s. or soviet union. you don't have to be loyal to a former colonial power, you can pick and choose. we have countries like burkina faso and mali that will be all right in their support for russia. other countries say, let's hear what france has to say. we don't have to accept them wholeheartedly but we can hear what they have to say.

it's going to be 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 until russia. african governments, making a mistake or not, is not our place to say. we do have to say we are dictating our future in a different way and france is not going to be a dominant player, it's going to be one of many players going forward. tom: one of those other players also heavily involved in africa, lara, can you tell us about china's influence on the continent? >> it's mainly economic. china is now a bigger trading partner with algeria than france is, which is mind-boggling when you think algeria was an integral part of france until independence in 1962. china is, in exchange for the natural mineral resources of

these african countries, is building factories, industry, sending large numbers of chinese immigrants to run them. whereas the russian influence is mainly military, the chinese influence is economic, industrial, financial. tom: before we finished, i want to get an idea of what you think a successful trip will look like for macron. >> i think if france can keep in place some trade agreements it has with the drc, that will be very good for it. france is also a trade partner with angola. that relationship is relatively secure. it's important he keeps it that way. i think if he keeps those trade agreements intact, if maybe he commits money towards the carbon

program, small gestures like that would be a sign of success. i don't think we are going to see anything major coming out of these. he has chosen what we could call quiet, reasonable governments to engage with compared to what france has faced in west africa. this is to entrench those agreements and he would be happy with that. tom: marie, if you could outline how you think this trip will be seen as a success from within africa. >> i don't think it will change anything. the countries which i visited -- gabon is having an election here and the opposition was afraid this might look like an endorsement of the outgoing president. the main issue about the anti-french sentiment, how

france can enhance its position in africa, i don't think it would change much in the areas where france is being rejected. the areas like drc where the sentiment is not the same as a former colonial master. maybe they are not very happy because france is not criticizing and condemning outright the invasion of the eastern part of the congo by the end of 2023. so if they stay in that position , nobody will be satisfied. tom: thank you. we will have to leave it there but it will be fascinating to see how his torah plays out. thanks to our guests.

thank you for watching. you can see the program again by visiting al jazeera.com. for further discussion, go to facebook.com/a.j.insidestory. you can join the conversation on twitter. form the entire team in doha, bye for now.

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