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French President Emmanuel Macron has hosted a large meeting of world leaders and businessmen together with his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, as Paris continues to look at other parts of the continent due to the deterioration of its relations with French-speaking countries in West Africa.
The meeting, which took place on Monday and Tuesday in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, was the first meeting of France in Africa in an English-speaking country.
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As a result of colonialism, the influence of France on the continent has been very strong in the countries of central and western Francophone Africa, which include those in the dry Sahel region separating the Sahara south of the coast.
However, as insecurity continues to ravage Sahelian countries from Mali to Niger over the past decade, anti-French sentiment has grown due to the failure of French military intervention and the belief that Paris is encroaching on countries that were once its territories.
France’s influence has waned in West Africa in recent years, as other countries have begun to align with Russia.
Now, France says it wants to “renew” its relations with African countries by targeting Anglophone countries where they have no colonial heritage. The meeting in Nairobi was initially such an attempt.
Was it successful? Here’s what happened at the meeting:
What happened at the tip?
Macron announced on Tuesday that France will invest 23 billion euros ($27bn) in African countries, mainly in energy, artificial intelligence, and culture.
Kenyan President Ruto, for his part, has repeatedly said that the new agreement must respect the rights of African countries.
“It should not be built on mutual trust but on justice, not on aid or charity but on making profitable investments, not on uprooting or exploiting each other but on success”, said Ruto.
However, the new French currency was overshadowed by an online backlash that followed some of Macron’s remarks at the summit.
He interrupted the ongoing group of young artists at one point by taking to the stage to scold the audience for mumbling, saying it showed “complete disrespect”.
Macron also said in a press conference at the conference that he was a “true Pan-Africanist”, which critics say is cultural or political.
Before the meeting, the French President said that Paris wants to “build partnerships on an equal footing, based on shared interests and tangible results”.
But his controversial remarks at the Nairobi summit raised questions among many Africans on social media about how France would take his pledges.
“It is too early to know if this is a successful strategy, because the agreement has only just been established,” Beverly Ochieng, a researcher for West Africa in Dakar at the intelligence company Control Risks, told Al Jazeera.
Any success, he added, depends on how Paris and new partners like Kenya manage the shadows cast by growing anti-French sentiment on the continent.
“Combining this with French economic and cultural investment – a shift away from military focus and development aid – is indeed the same, is in line with today’s political challenges, and contributes to growth and productivity in Africa,” he said.
What influence does France have in Francophone Africa?
France has no influence during the colonial period on security, finance, and trade in “Francafrique”, which refers to the history of France in Africa.
Military presence
Paris has maintained a military presence in the former colonies. Following the independence movement of the 1960s, France granted independence to several countries, but in most cases, it did not disarm.
Despite the presence of French troops, the countries of the West African Sahel continue to see chaos, stemming from separatist groups and religious extremism.
In 2012, insecurity in Mali increased, with separatists and armed groups working together. The crisis spread across the border between Burkina Faso and Niger.
Amid the lack of security, and a request from Mali, France sent thousands of troops, including several military aircraft based in Chad, a former colony. Over the next decade, violence subsided but continued.
However, after Mali’s military seized power in 2020, France condemned the coup led by current President Assimi Goita, angering the new government. Soon Paris began to transfer supplies and troops to Niger.
As a result, the military seized power in Burkina Faso and Niger and commanded the French military.
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) and turned to the Russian military for support.
Even the friendly governments of Ivory Coast, Chad, and Senegal have called for the withdrawal of French troops.
France to be given Controlling his last military base in Senegal last July, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who attended the Kenyan conference, said the French base was not compatible with the country’s sovereignty.
Funds supported by France
Despite declining military power, France maintains monetary control through the Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA) franc.
This coin was created in 1945. At that time its acronym stood for “Colonies Francaises d’Afrique” (French Colonies in Africa).
There are two currencies: the West African CFA franc and the Central African franc. Together, about 14 countries with about 210 million people use it, including AES countries.
The CFA has a fixed value that is pegged to the French currency, the euro. Since the end of World War II, all CFA countries were required to keep 50 percent of their reserves in the French Treasury, and a French representative was always present on the currency board.
Although the CFA has been criticized by critics as a relic of colonialism, it is still in use today.
In 2019, the West African franc was reformed so that countries no longer need to keep half of their currency in France.
However, it still clings to the French currency, with supporters arguing that its peg to the stable euro has protected the countries from inflation in the volatile region.
French businesses
There are more than 3,000 French businesses in Africa, according to a business intelligence firm Insight topic.
Most live in North Africa – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and other Francophone countries. South Africa also has large numbers.
These businesses range from telecommunications companies like Orange to energy companies like TotalEnergies and Orano, and banks like Societe Generale.
In the West African Sahel, French businesses are facing challenges amid conflict and military regimes.
In Niger, for example, Orano, which has mined uranium in the country for 50 years, said it had lost the ability to support its local organizations after 2023. Last year, Niamey nationalized mining company Somair, a subsidiary of which Orano had 63 percent.
“Several connected companies in France have reduced visibility, winter expansion plans, or are facing renegotiation issues,” Yannick Lefang, founder of Kasi Insight, told Al Jazeera.
The governments of the Sahel have now turned to cooperation with Russia, Turkey, the Gulf States, and increasingly, China.
However, Lefang said, the governments of the Sahel cannot move away from French companies that focus on consumers such as Orange telephones because they are “more focused on the local economy and services”.
French language
About 44 percent of the nearly 400 million French-speaking people are in Africa. Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is known as the largest French-speaking city in the world.
What country is France going to now?
Paris is swapping military aid and development aid for better trade, experts say.
“Although the headlines often say ‘France will leave Africa’, our findings show that the reality is a redistribution of influence rather than a complete flight,” said Lefang.
France has moved closer to Nigeria and Kenya, where it has no colonial history. The two countries have about 300 French companies combined.
Nigeria, West Africa’s largest economy, announced in March that it was cooperating with Paris to buy military equipment and train its military for the escalating crisis.
In early 2024, both countries signed a 300-million-euro ($350m) financial agreement to help improve infrastructure, health care, transportation, and renewable energy in Nigeria.
Likewise, France has signed a security agreement with Kenya, an important economic center in East Africa, to promote cooperation in intelligence sharing, maritime security, and peacekeeping.
However, Anglophone countries are very competitive, experts say.
In 2025, President Ruto of Kenya terminated the highway contract with France’s Vinci Highways SAS due to financial concerns. The contract has now been awarded to a Chinese company.
