OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso, (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron today sought to make a clean break from his predecessors saying that he came from a generation that would not tell Africans what to do and would focus his efforts on bridging ties between Africa and Europe.
“I am from a generation that doesn’t come to tell Africans what to do,” Macron said during a speech to university students in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou. “I am from a generation for whom Nelson Mandela’s victory is one of the best political memories.”
Macron is on a three-day visit to West Africa that includes an EU-Africa summit in Ivory Coast’s capital Abidjan.
“I will not stand by those who say the African continent is one of crises and misery. I will be alongside those who believe that Africa is neither a lost continent or one that needs to be saved.”
