The French Secretary of State, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in charge of Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, accused « predatory powers who wish to make the continent a field of confrontation of being behind anti-French sentiment in Africa ». She held a press conference at the residence of the France Embassy in Dakar, at the end of her 3-day stay in Senegal. Several issues were on the agenda.« Behind the anti-French sentiment in Africa, there are predatory powers that want to make the continent a battleground. »This is the feeling of the French Secretary of State, ChrysoulaZacharopoulou.After a three-day stay in Senegal as part of the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa, from 24 to 25 October 2022.She spoke yesterday at the residence of the Embassy of France in Dakar, located in Cap Manuel.According to her, this « revolt » against her country in Africa is agitated by « a small minority, opportunistic, very noisy on the anti-French discourse », she added: « But we must not confuse this discourse of a minority with the feeling that remains positive.I can understand the frustrations sometimes, but I know there is also a lot of expectation.It shows that we need to work together to succeed in making a positive speech. »In front of the press, the French Secretary of State raised other issues such as the debate on the difficulty of obtaining visas for France.According to her, the Consulate General of France in Dakar is facing a « very » significant increase in requests.The number of visas issued between January 1 and September 30, 2022, is twice as high at the same period as the previous year, more than 17 thousand visas given with priority to students, hammered the Secretary.Despite these figures, she admits, efforts must be made to facilitate the mobility of Senegalese wishing to go to France.After praising the « magnificent » collaboration between Senegal, France and the European Union (EU) in the field of health, she said that the goal is to manufacture vaccines in Africa to face future pandemics.« France mobilised 25 million Euros for the Vaccino Pole projects I visited.Regarding France, I was able to announce the first tranche of this loan, which has just been disbursed to the amount of 10 million euros, » said French Secretary of State ChrysoulaZacharopoulou.In addition, she stressed that the issue of food sovereignty is one of the priorities of African heads of state.She revealed that she had discussed with the President of the Republic, MackySall, the continent’s access to fertilisers.By Aliou DIALLO

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH