France tells Africa to take charge of security
Paris — French President Francois Hollande on Friday told African
leaders it is time for their continent to take charge of its own
security as a major summit went ahead against the sombre backdrop of
mourning for Nelson Mandela.
Hollande unveiled a major new
initiative under which France would train 20,000 African troops a year
over five years as part of efforts to give the continent a greater
capacity to handle its own security problems.
But what would have
been a headline-making pledge on any other day was overshadowed as the
summit succumbed to the emotion that has washed over much of the world
in the wake of Mandela's death.
Hollande began the two-day
meeting, attended by some 40 African leaders, by delivering an emotional
tribute to the hero of the anti-apartheid struggle.
"He became a global hero because he was profoundly human and profoundly good," the French Socialist leader said.
Flags
above the presidential Elysee Palace flew at half-mast and, prior to a
minute's silence, the leaders listened to a recording of part of
Mandela's Nobel Peace prize acceptance speech.
South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Mandela would not have wanted his death to hold up business.
"Last
night, when the news broke out, we were saying to each other: What do
we do? Do we pack our bags? Do we hide under our beds and lament his
passing on?" she said.
"We agreed that this is not the way he would have loved to be celebrated.
"Africa is not free until it is totally free from insecurity, from wars, from underdevelopment, from poverty and inequality.
"This
is the befitting tribute to Madiba, to... continue on this journey of
discussing how we should continue working together to find African
solutions to African problems."
France wants to shed image as Africa's policeman
Underlining
France's desire to rid itself of its reputation for post-colonial
meddling in Africa's affairs, Hollande said Africa had to develop the
means to sort out its own problems.
Speaking less than 24 hours
after he ordered French troops into the crisis-wracked Central African
Republic (CAR), Hollande said Paris was ready to help turn tentative
plans for the creation of an African rapid reaction force into reality.
Later
in the day, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France would
provide training in areas such as logistics and planning, and would help
create a "mobile joint staff" for the force.
France is deploying
1,200 troops to CAR in support of a larger African force that will
attempt to stabilise a country in danger of being engulfed by sectarian
violence which left more than 120 people dead in the capital Bangui on
Thursday.
The CAR mission will be France's second military
intervention in Africa this year. In January, Hollande sent more than
4,000 troops to Mali to oust Islamist groups that had seized control of
much of the north of the country.
France has sent troops into
Africa more than 20 times since the early 1960s, frequently in
undisguised pursuit of its own strategic interests.
But Hollande's government insists it wants to break with that tradition and shed its role as the continent's policeman.
Paris
currently has more than 5,000 troops stationed at bases across Africa
and the cost of maintaining them stands at 400 million euros ($540
million) per year.
The possible creation of an African force
capable of intervening in hotspots was among the issues discussed
Friday, along with terrorism, piracy and trafficking.
And at a
conference on the margins of the summit, the first ladies of some 20
African countries urged an end to the use of rape as a "weapon of war."
"We...
denounce the intolerable persistence of sexual violence in conflicts
and refuse that this be considered as inevitable -- even acceptable --
consequences of wars," they said in a statement.
The CAR crisis is due to be examined after the end of the main summit on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday's
morning session will focus on economic issues, with France pushing a
new partnership plan with Africa drafted by Finance Minister Pierre
Moscovici.
With China now Africa's largest trading partner and
countries like India and Brazil scaling up their presence, France is
anxious to tap into the continent's rapidly growing economies.
It
already has a strong presence in Africa -- which accounts for three
percent of French exports -- but its share of the African market has
been falling steadily since its retreat from empire in the 1960s.
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