The French President proposed “a joint work of Cameroonian and French historians” and also announced the “entire” opening of the French archives.
Le Monde with AFP
Emmanuel Macron asked, Tuesday, July 26, from historians to “shed light” on the action of France in Cameroon during colonization and after the independence of this country. The French president also announced at the same time the “entire” opening of the French archives on “painful moments” and “tragic”.
“I hope that we can have and launch together a joint work of Cameroonian and French historians”, proposed Mr. Macron, during a press conference in Yaoundé with his Cameroonian counterpart Paul Biya. Before the independence of Cameroon in 1960, the French authorities repressed in the blood the nationalist activists engaged in the armed struggle against the colonizer.
The French head of state arrived at midday at the presidential palace for an interview with his counterpart Paul Biya, 89, who has run Cameroon with an iron fist for almost forty years. He intended to discuss outside cameras “without any taboo of all subjects”, like that of the political transition which is announced because of the age of his counterpart, had informed the Elysée upstream of the meeting.
Engagement for the security of the African continent
“We will not let go of the security of the African continent”, also promised Emmanuel Macron a little earlier in the day, during a speech before the French Community of Yaoundé.
He thus reaffirmed his desire to “reinvent” the “military and security system” French, especially in the Sahel, while the last soldiers of the operation “Barkhane” must leave Mali at the end of the summer and be redeployed in the Sahelian zone.
“France will remain resolutely committed to the security of the continent in support and at the request of our African partners,” said the Head of State, before adding: “We will remain mobilized alongside the countries of the Lake Chad Basin to help them fight the terrorists who have been mourning the Far North of Cameroon for so many years, where Boko Haram is active.
During this speaking, the Head of State also wanted to twist the neck to certain “carabistouilles” which circulate in the context of the war in Ukraine on the African continent, while Sergei Lavrov, chief of the Russian diplomacy is also visiting in four countries on the continent.
“Food and energy have become Russian war weapons”
“We are attacked by some who explain that European sanctions would be the cause of the global food crisis, of which African. It is totally false, it is simply that food and energy have become weapons of Russian war, “he said, assuring that the European Union” wants to respond to the food emergency “which affects the African continent.
An implicit reference to the gallery published Monday by Mr. Lavrov in the dispatches of Brazzaville, the only daily newspaper in the Republic of Congo, where the latter criticizes the European sanctions taken against his country, as well as “Western and Ukrainian propaganda, which claim that Russia “exports famine” “and boasts that Russia” has not tarnished its reputation by bloody crimes of colonialism “.
A meeting on food security was scheduled in the afternoon, before a visit by Emmanuel Macron to the village Noah, in the suburbs of Yaoundé, where former tennis player Yannick Noah now spends six months of the ‘year. The tour started Monday evening by the head of state on the African continent is to continue on Wednesday in Benin and, Thursday, in Guinea-Bissau.