France not to fix Africa’s problems – President Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday visited President Muhammmadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja and said his country would not be the one to completely fix Africa’s problems.

Macron was speaking at a joint press conference after the close-door meeting with President Buhari.

Asked what were his country’s plans to curb terrorism in Africa, specifically herdsmen and farmers crisis in Nigeria, Macron said: “Well it is just that you have all these several issues correlated and your question is related to this event.

“First of all, I think the main plan is an African plan and France is not the one to solve or fix African situations. So, what we want to do is that we will intervene and maintain our presence in Africa and Sahel to fight against terrorism especially in Mali and in the region. And we will stay as long as it is requested by our friends especially Mali; we discussed on Monday about this issue.

“But what is important to me is how the different African governments organise themselves to fight against terrorism and get rid of these people and especially jihadism. That’s why I do promote the G5/Sahel Initiatives and I think as far as we are organised, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon is very important.”

The French leader stressed the need for countries to increase the pressure against terrorists, especially jihadists.

“We can fix the situation in the coming month and obviously France will remain present in Mali for as long as they want it.

“But when I look at the past months, we have increased our resource and delivered concrete results in northern and western Mali which for me give positive outcomes,” he stated.