Macron criticises African countries over Ukraine stance

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has criticised the stance taken by leaders in Africa on the current conflict in Ukraine.

Macron, on a three-country tour of the continent, said in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, that the refusal by some African countries to describe the conflict in Europe as a ‘war’ was ‘hypocrisy’.

In March 17 African countries, including South Africa, refused to condemn the invasion in a UN vote.

Macron also said that the ongoing conflict between Francophone and Anglophone Cameroonians can only be solved through a ‘political process of dialogue and reform’.

The relationship between much of Africa and France is coloured by its role as one of the two primary colonisers of the continent, along with the United Kingdom. France has also continued to play an important military and economic role in many of its former colonies.