President Maada Bio will attend in Nairobi, on May 11 and 12, the Africa Forward summit, jointly organised by Kenya and France. On the eve of this summit, we publish an article of Luc Briard, Ambassador of France to Guinea and Sierra Leone, which presents the objectives of the summit and highlights more particularly projects supported by France in Sierra Leone.
French ambassador in Guinea and Sierra Leone
Almost ten years after French President Emmanuel Macron’s Ouagadougou speech, which laid the foundations for renewed relations between France and the countries of Africa, Kenya and France are co-organizing the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi on 11 and 12 May 2026.
This renewal is built on a partnership of equals, based on shared interests and tangible results. And so initiatives have been implemented over the past nine years: ending permanent French military presence and closing bases in Senegal, Chad, Gabon and Côte d’Ivoire, prioritizing training courses (21 regionally-oriented national schools); supporting greater representation of the continent of Africa in international forums; mobilizing our partners by organizing summits on the economic growth of the continent (Conference on the Financing of African Economies in 2021 and Paris Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in 2023), fighting global warming (One Forest Summit in Gabon in 2023), strengthening food security (Food & Agriculture Resilience Mission in 2022), and producing vaccines in Africa (Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation in 2024).
Similarly, France has been able to face its colonial past, with a will to move forward in a spirit of dialogue. Remembrance work on the actions of the French State and public administration began wherever it was requested (Rwanda, Senegal, Cameroon) and an unprecedented movement on the return of cultural goods was initiated (Benin, Algeria, Senegal, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire).
