{"id":954970,"date":"2026-05-12T14:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954970\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:25:18","slug":"frances-macron-offers-e23bn-and-ethical-partner-in-new-africa-pivot-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954970\/","title":{"rendered":"France\u2019s Macron offers \u20ac23bn and \u2018ethical partner\u2019 in new Africa pivot \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a \u20ac23bn investment in Africa focused on energy transition, digital and AI, the maritime economy and agriculture during a\u00a0two day\u00a0summit<\/a> in Kenya held over Monday and Tuesday (11-12 May).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Macron sought to position France as an \u201cethical partner\u201d for African countries\u00a0during the \u2018Advance Africa\u2019\u00a0summit<\/a>, which was\u00a0jointly hosted with Kenyan counterpart William Ruto and\u00a0attended by more than 30 African leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cash is composed of \u20ac14bn in private and public funds from French entities, and \u20ac9bn from African investors, focused on energy transition, digital and AI, the maritime economy and agriculture. <\/p>\n

The projects would create 250,000 direct jobs in France and Africa, Macron said on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The French president\u2019s\u00a0message of \u2018equal partnership\u2019,\u00a0which EU officials have put at the heart of their own diplomatic outreach to African countries, was also taken up by Kenyan officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Africa is not coming to Europe, it is a case of Europe coming to Africa on an equal basis,\u2019\u00a0Abraham Korir Sing\u2019Oei, permanent secretary at Kenya\u2019s foreign ministry, told reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leaders also ratified\u00a0a new\u00a0defence\u00a0cooperation agreement between Kenya and France that will allow French military personnel to\u00a0operate\u00a0in the country, alongside existing British and American forces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defence\u00a0pact<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 with immunity<\/p>\n

Kenya signed a similar deal with Italian prime\u00a0minister\u00a0Giorgia Meloni in April, but opposition politicians in Nairobi have complained that the\u00a0immunity provisions within the France-Kenya agreement\u00a0could\u00a0shield foreign soldiers from local prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBy allowing foreign troops to avoid local jurisdiction for crimes committed against civilians, the government is\u00a0prioritising\u00a0international relations over the safety of citizens,\u201d\u00a0said Boniface\u00a0Mwangi, a prominent civil society leader, adding that the arrangement violates the constitution\u2019s provisions on the supremacy of Kenyan law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defence pact will expand France\u2019s military footprint in Africa having been forced to withdraw its soldiers from three countries in West Africa\u2019s Sahel region between 2022 and 2025 where they were leading\u00a0a mission tackling Islamic insurgents,\u00a0at the\u00a0behest of military governments in Burkina Faso,\u00a0Niger\u00a0and Mali.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anglophone pivot<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The summit marks a pivot\u00a0for France towards Anglophone Africa, where it has traditionally had a limited diplomatic presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0stop accusations of \u2018neo-colonialism\u2019 against France in some quarters. <\/p>\n

Kenya was a British colony until securing independence in 1963.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For his\u00a0part, Kenya\u2019s president Ruto has\u00a0sought\u00a0to position himself as\u00a0an important\u00a0geopolitical ally for Europe, the United States and China.\u00a0He has also signed bilateral\u00a0defence\u00a0and health agreements with the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrica wants investment and equal partnership, not aid,\u201d said Ruto. On Tuesday, meanwhile, he called for European support to\u00a0reform the Bretton Woods institutions \u2013 the IMF and World Bank \u2013 which dominate a financial architecture that, he argued,\u00a0has imposed unfairly high borrowing costs on African countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UN expansion<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ruto\u00a0also\u00a0reiterated demands for Africa to have two permanent seats on the UN security council\u00a0during a joint session with Macron and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a \u20ac23bn investment in Africa focused on energy transition, digital and AI,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[217083,2000,299,36,221891,236019,266560,266569,266563,266566,221889,236017,266558,266561,266564,266567,221890,236018,266559,266562,266565,266568],"class_list":["post-954970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-typedefinedterm","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-identifier26","tag-identifier4391","tag-identifier4481","tag-identifier4552","tag-identifier4565","tag-identifier4705","tag-nameafrica","tag-namedefence","tag-namefrance","tag-namekenya","tag-namemacron","tag-nameun","tag-termcodeafrica","tag-termcodedefence","tag-termcodefrance","tag-termcodekenya","tag-termcodemacron","tag-termcodeun"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116562070294252524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}