France

Local officials in northern Mali accused the French military on Friday of killing six civilians in an airstrike, but French forces said they had hit extremist militants. The incident, which occurred on Thursday in the remote region of Gao, is the second time this year that France's operation Barkhane has been accused of killing civilians. The operation involves more than 5,000 troops fighting militants in Mali and neighboring countries. Barkhane said the strike had "neutralized" a group of militants…

The president of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum, Emmanuel Kasarherou, arrived in Cotonou on Wednesday, March 24, on a technical mission through March 28, to advance preparations on the Benin side for the return of the 26 works promised by Paris. Time is running out, as the French deputies have given Benin and Senegal a year to complete the process and restore that work. The French mission is purely technical. On the program, work sessions and site visits for Quai Branly's president. For his visit, Benin mobilized…

Algerian researchers must have access to the archives of Algeria kept in France by Abdelmajid Chikhi, Director General of the Algerian National Archives. The latter requires the opening of archives on both sides of the Mediterranean. Abdelmajid Chikhi was a guest on Monday on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera in a program about the…

France will resume its embassy in the war-torn Libyan capital Tripoli next Monday, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday, promising to support the new interim government. Macron met with Mohammed Menfi, head of Libya's three-member presidency council, in Paris. Menfi was elected in February as part of a UN-hosted political process. Menfi and Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah are tasked with guiding the Government of National Unity (GNU) until the national elections scheduled for December…

France will reopen its embassy in Tripoli on Monday, March 29. This was announced by Emmanuel Macron to the representatives of the new Libyan transitional government, which he received at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday 23 March. Libyan President Mohamed al Manfi and Vice President Moussa al Koni welcomed Paris' support for the ongoing reconciliation and stabilization process in Libya. France has offered…

Figure of the Senegalese artistic scene, the painter Ndoye Douts invites to a unique dive in the popular districts of Dakar. It is there, from Yoff to Gueule-Tapée, that he draws his inspiration since leaving art in 1999. "Entre terre et mer", his new exhibition at the Art-Z Gallery in Paris, until March 27, testifies to abundant, colorful, playful work.…

After a blank year in 2020 due to a pandemic, the Franco-African Foundation will resume this month and until March 21 its call for applications to select a new promotion of 100 young African and French entrepreneurs. The Young Leaders, an initiative launched in 2017 by Beninese Lionel Zinsou with the support of the French public authorities, has become a private foundation, but the goal remains the same:…

Emmanuel Macron decided, as he had been asked in connection with the Stora report on the Algerian war, to facilitate access to classified archives. Following the recognition by France a few days ago of the fact that nationalist leader Ali Boumendjel had been tortured and murdered, the head of state wants to show that he continues to make progress on the sensitive issue of Franco-French relations. .…

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a decision on Tuesday to speed up the declassification of secret documents related to Algeria's 1954-62 independence war from France. The move comes from a series of measures taken by Macron to unite France with its colonial past and address its brutal history with Algeria, which had been under French rule for 132 years until its independence in 1962. The French Presidency said in a statement that archival services will now be allowed to use a new procedure to…

A few days before 2021, two questions arise for France in the Sahel. Should we reduce Barkhane's workforce? And should we negotiate with the jihadists?