More so because of President Emmanuel Macron standing alongside Ouattara at the ceremony conveying continuing French influence despite the technical reforms (AC Vol 63 No 11 Leaders favour new CFA franc plan)...

Once convicted in Geneva for laundering money stolen by military leader Sani Abacha and in the United States for illegal political contributions these days Chagoury is feted by France's President Emmanuel Macron and ex-US President Bill Clinton and most of all by Nigeria's Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a philanthropist (AC Vol 65 No 13 Tinubu summons the ghosts of Abacha's kleptocracy)...

Tinubu's first trip as President was to Paris to see Chagoury and attend President Emmanuel Macron's Global Finance summit in June...

Emmanuel Macron's 25 March congratulations to Faye announced on X (formerly Twitter) was no surprise...

When President Emmanuel Macron backed calls by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) for restoring civilian rule and Bazoum's release the CNSP's Gen Tiani demanded that France withdraw all its troops...

So far France's President Emmanuel Macron fearing that any intervention from the former colonial power would fuel unrest has declined to comment on the latest political implosion in francophone West Africa...

French President Emmanuel Macron has demanded global climate and carbon levies provided they are not negotiated by the UN...

Just how critical the Emirati role is in Chad and Sudan was underlined when one of Abu Dhabi's senior security officials was part of Mahamat Kaka's delegation when he met France's President Emmanuel Macron and officials from the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE) in Paris in October (AC Vol 64 No 23 Presidents Mahamat Kaka and Macron meet on security threats)...

In February 2023 Scott published a report which he claimed exonerated Morocco's Direction Générale de la Sûreté Nationale (DGSN) from accusations that it had used the Pegasus spyware software made by Israel's NSO group to hack the phones of France's President Emmanuel Macron several political leaders in the region as well as thousands of Moroccans (AC Vol 62 No 16 Spy chiefs on manoeuvres)...

He has also said on social media that President Vladimir Putin was correct to start the war with Ukraine after the EU sided with 'Nazis' in Kyiv and that President Emmanuel Macron and France were a greater threat to Africa than famine...