French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a sharp diplomatic offensive against China’s expanding role in Africa, accusing Beijing of pursuing a “predatory logic” designed to trap nations in economic dependency while presenting Europe as the continent’s only reliable long-term partner.
Speaking during a high-profile Africa-France summit in Nairobi, Macron sought to reposition France after years of political humiliation and military retreat across west Africa, where anti-French sentiment, military coups and growing Russian influence have dismantled much of Paris’s post-colonial power structure.
The summit in Kenya, extensively covered by The Times UK, marked a significant strategic shift for France. It was the first Africa-France gathering held in an English-speaking African nation, symbolising Paris’s attempt to move beyond its shrinking influence in former French colonies and forge deeper ties with anglophone powers such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Macron’s remarks reflected growing anxiety in Europe over Africa becoming the central battleground in a new global competition involving China, Russia, the United States and the European Union. As demand for critical minerals, rare earth elements and strategic infrastructure intensifies, Africa’s vast natural wealth has become increasingly essential to the global economy.
At the summit, Macron directly accused China of using its economic power to create dependency across the continent. He criticised Beijing’s dominance in mining and infrastructure projects, particularly its insistence that raw materials extracted in Africa be processed inside China before entering global supply chains.
“China is creating dependencies with the rest of the world,” Macron warned, arguing that Europe instead wanted to pursue “a strategy of autonomy” that would benefit both continents.
His comments represent one of the strongest public attacks yet by a major European leader against China’s role in Africa. Beijing has spent the past two decades dramatically expanding its influence through loans, infrastructure projects and trade agreements under its Belt and Road Initiative. China is now Africa’s largest trading partner and has financed railways, ports, highways and energy projects across dozens of countries.
In Kenya itself, Chinese investment transformed the transport network with the construction of a modern railway linking Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa. Across the continent, Chinese-built infrastructure has become both a symbol of development and a source of growing political controversy, with critics warning that mounting debt leaves African nations vulnerable to Beijing’s leverage.
Macron attempted to frame Europe as fundamentally different. In interviews before the summit, he said Europe remained committed to the international order, free trade and the rule of law, contrasting European engagement with what he described as China’s disregard for global norms and America’s increasingly confrontational foreign policy.
At the same time, Macron also challenged African leaders directly, arguing that colonialism alone could not explain the continent’s present struggles. While he has frequently condemned France’s own colonial legacy, he insisted that post-independence governance failures must also be acknowledged.
“We must not exonerate from all responsibility the seven decades that followed independence,” he said, calling for stronger leadership and accountability across Africa.
The remarks came as France attempts to recover from one of the most serious geopolitical setbacks in its modern history. Over the past several years, military governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger expelled French troops and severed long-standing defence ties with Paris. In their place, the juntas increasingly turned toward Russian mercenary groups, first the Wagner Group and later its Kremlin-controlled successor, Africa Corps.
The collapse of France’s military presence in west Africa marked the unraveling of what Paris once called its pré carré, or “backyard” — a sphere of influence built through decades of military alliances, political patronage and economic dominance after African independence.
Macron has repeatedly rejected claims that France was humiliated by the withdrawals. Speaking in Nairobi, he argued that French forces left because local governments no longer wanted them after military coups.
“When our presence was no longer wanted, we left,” he said. “That wasn’t a humiliation but a logical response to a given situation.”
Yet many analysts see the situation differently. Vincent Hugeux, a longtime observer of African politics, said Macron originally hoped to gradually rebalance France’s relationship with Africa in partnership with African leaders, but events overtook his plans.
“In reality, France was forced out,” he said.
The French president now appears determined to reinvent Paris’s role before the end of his presidency. With barely a year left in office, Macron is trying to distance himself from the discredited Françafrique system that long tied France to authoritarian African rulers through opaque military, business and political networks.
Business diplomacy has become central to that strategy. Executives from major French corporations joined diplomats and politicians at the Nairobi summit as Paris sought to counter growing perceptions that French companies were abandoning Africa.
Philippe Gautier, director-general of the international branch of Medef, France’s employers’ federation, argued that French investment in Africa was actually increasing, particularly in English-speaking economies.
“The idea is to demolish the perception that French business has pulled out of Africa,” he said, pointing to expanding commercial ties with Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
East Africa’s rising importance reflects broader geopolitical shifts reshaping the continent. Analysts say the region has become increasingly strategic because of instability in Sudan and Somalia, the concentration of foreign military bases in nearby Djibouti and Kenya’s emergence as a diplomatic hub under President William Ruto.
Western powers have intensified their engagement accordingly. Britain, the United States and the European Union have all expanded diplomatic and economic ties with Nairobi over the past two years, viewing Kenya as a relatively stable anchor in a volatile region.
Macron’s visit underscored that urgency. In carefully staged public appearances, the French president sought to project partnership and renewal rather than paternalism. Before the summit opened, he jogged through Nairobi alongside Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya’s legendary Olympic marathon champion, in an image designed to symbolise closeness and shared ambition.
But beneath the symbolism lies a far larger struggle over Africa’s future. As global powers race to secure influence, access to minerals and strategic alliances, African nations increasingly find themselves balancing competing offers from East and West.
For Europe, the stakes are enormous. Losing influence in Africa would not only weaken economic access to critical resources but also reduce political influence in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions. For China, Africa remains central to its long-term global ambitions.
Macron’s warning about “predatory” competition signals that the battle for Africa has entered a new phase — one defined less by colonial memory and more by economic power, strategic resources and the fight to shape the emerging world order.
