For the last leg of his African tour, Emmanuel Macron met Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege in Kinshasa. “They discussed the situation in the east of the country and the new partnership between Africa and France that the president illustrated during this tour,” the French presidency said on Sunday, confirming information from the radio. France Inter.
Dr Mukwege runs a hospital in Bukavu, in the east of the country, plagued for nearly 30 years by violence by armed groups, gang rapes and genital mutilation. The situation has deteriorated sharply recently in this mineral-rich region, with the DRC accusing Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebellion which has seized large swaths of territory there.
The meeting with the French president was held discreetly while several groups are pushing the Nobel Peace Prize winner to enter the presidential race to be held in December in the DRC. According to France Inter, Emmanuel Macron saw him at the residence of the French ambassador before joining his counterpart with whom he had a lively exchange in front of the press on the electoral process in the DRC.
Lively exchanges between the Congolese president and Emmanuel Macron
Félix Tshisekedi, elected in 2018 under controversial conditions, did not hide his resentment at the remarks made by the then head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who described his victory as a “compromise to the African”. The Congolese president called for more “respect”, deploring the “paternalistic gaze” cast on Africa and suggesting that Western countries, including France, were not exempt from electoral “irregularities”.
Emmanuel Macron replied, at the risk of posing as a lesson giver, that in France “political embezzlement” gave rise to “trials” and convictions and that justice there was “independent”.