Macron to boost flagging influence on Africa tour as Mali leader urges ‘reset’ in ties

French President Emmanuel Macron will tour Africa this week to try to boost France’s flagging influence on the continent and convince young people eyeing Europe’s shores they have a future at home.

Macron’s first African tour, which begins Tuesday, takes him to Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire, two former French colonies that deposed strongmen leaders in recent years, as well as to Ghana.

It comes as Europe tries to find ways to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean without leaving them to the mercy of traffickers in transit countries like Libya, where they face torture, rape, and – as a CNN report showed recently – being sold into slavery.

Macron is also seeking international backing for a new, five-nation African counter-terrorism force, which France hopes to see eventually take over the fight against jihadist groups in the Sahel region. Above all, his advisors say, he will stress that he wants a partnership of equals with Africa, based on education and entrepreneurship.

Macron has been taking counsel from a group of young French business people of African origin about how to buff his country’s image on a continent where for decades it propped up ageing Francophile autocrats. He is also on a mission to make amends for previous controversial remarks about Africa.

In a July speech diagnosing demographic, democratic and security challenges in Africa Macron said the continent had “civilizational” problems and listed women having “seven or eight children” as a challenge.

Burkina Faso’s new president Roch Marc Christian Kabore has called for a reset in relations, based on “equality, mutual interest and respect.”

Alain Antil, an Africa specialist at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris, said France appeared outof-touch with the aspirations of ordinary Africans.

“In Francophone West Africa the feeling is that France is in tune with the leaders but not with youth or civil society,” he told AFP.

Since becoming president in May, Macron has paid two visits to Mali, home to a 4,000-strong French regional counter-terrorism force.