France

Morning guest 02:21

Fréderic Bontems, special envoy for the Sahel at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stayed in Cotonou for 24 hours. This is his first assignment to Benin since taking office. With the many terrorist attacks registered in northern Benin, the country is of…

This is the first evidence of life since May 2021. The French journalist Olivier Dubois, who was abducted while reporting in Gao, northern Mali, on April 8, 2021, is shown in a video. Olivier Dubois, the only known French hostage in the world, is alone on…

As France prepares to withdraw its forces from Mali, the way may be open for talks between the Malian government and al-Qaeda-linked militants, a process that could bring the West African nation closer to peace. Mali, a landlocked nation of 21 million people, has fought to curb a brutal uprising that erupted in 2012, before spreading to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and 2 million people displaced by the Sahel-wide conflict, in which Mali is…

France and its allies in a European force announced on Thursday that they would begin withdrawing troops from Mali after nearly 10 years of fighting an extremist uprising. A statement signed by France and its African and European allies said that "several obstacles" from the ruling junta meant that the conditions were no longer in place to operate in Mali. The decision concerns both France's Barkhane force in the Sahel and the European force Takuba, which Paris had tried to create together with its…

After nearly two years of diplomatic tensions between France and Madagascar, Emmanuel Macron acquired Andry Rajoelinace on Friday, August 27, 2021 on the Élysée. The content material of the assembly was not made public, however in introductory statements the 2 heads of state confirmed their mutual sympathy. From the start, the…

A gunman killed three law enforcement officials and a personal safety guard on Wednesday in a ransacking of a diplomatic quarter in Tanzania's foremost metropolis, Dar es Salaam, earlier than being shot whereas locked in a guardhouse on the door of the French Embassy. Internet movies, apparently filmed by spectators from buildings reverse the French Embassy, ​​confirmed the gunman contained in the guard submit. He exchanged gunshots from a really brief distance with law enforcement officials and males who seemed to be…

Algeria and Morocco joined countries on the red list of France on Friday, August 20. This list applies to countries where "active circulation of the virus is observed with the presence of variants of concern". Unvaccinated people returning from these two countries must present a convincing reason, a PCR test in less than 48 hours and must isolate themselves for ten days.…

Paris has suspended an agreement on military cooperation between France and Ethiopia, sources said on Friday in the middle of the ongoing conflict in the north of the African country. The agreement between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Emmanuel Macron in March 2019 was terminated in early July. Macron and Abiy had signed an agreement in which France would borrow 85 million euros ($ 100 million) to support Ethiopia's ambition to build a navy. Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for…

On Saturday, the French president summoned Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Abdallah Hamdok, the head of the Sudanese government. Two interviews to underline, according to the Élysée, France's concerns about the rise of fighting in northern Ethiopia and the development of the humanitarian situation in Tigray. Emmanuel…