France - The African Mirror

May

2021

Macron pledges help for Africa

PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron has announced that France would invest in boosting the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa, to help close a gap in the availability of the shots between African and Western nations. Speaking at a joint news conference with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria, Macron said Africa made up around 20% of the world's need for vaccines but only 1% of vaccine production. "How do we boost the production of vaccines on the African continent?" he said. "On this, we will this afternoon have an investment strategy to help these industrials produce more, and quite quickly."…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Romain Grosjean’s special return to F1

SPORT

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER ROMAIN Grosjean’s dream of ending his Formula 1 career the way he wanted is coming true. Grosjean and Mercedes-AMG Petronas announced that Grosjean would return to the F1 cockpit to complete a once-off test for the six-time winning champions in France. In seven months to the day since his crash, Grosjean will drive Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 championship-winning W10 in a full-day test at French Grand Prix venue Circuit Paul Ricard on June 29. He will also pilot the car for a series of demonstration laps ahead of his home race at the same venue two days earlier.…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

France pledges investment to boost sustainable cotton in Ivory Coast

BUSINESS

ANGE ABOA FRANCE’S development agency will invest 68.5 million euros ($83.04 million) over the next five years to boost cotton production in Ivory Coast, economy minister Bruno Le Maire said during a visit to the West African country on Thursday. Le Maire said the programme will target 120,000 cotton farmers in the northern region of the country and boost revenue in the cotton sector, benefiting the Ivorian economy. The country produced 490,000 tonnes of cotton in the 2019/20 season and 2020/21 output is forecast at 500,000 tonnes by the agriculture ministry. France's aid pledge comes as the European Union (EU),…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

France kicks off Europe’s vaccine donations to poorer states

COVID-19

FRANCE will soon become the first European Union member to send some of its own COVID vaccine supplies to developing countries via the international COVAX scheme, hoping others will join its bid to stave off new variants and compete with Russia and China. The French donation of an initial 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine this month, announced on Wednesday, is a boost for COVAX, which is backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). The COVAX facility aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower-income countries by the end of…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Rwanda blames France for enabling 1994 genocide

NEWS

CLEMENT UWIRIGIYIMANA FRANCE was aware that a genocide was being prepared in Rwanda ahead of the 1994 killings and the French government bore a significant responsibility for enabling it, the Rwandan government said in a report published yesterday. Between April and July of 1994, some 800 000 people were slaughtered, mainly from the ethnic Tutsi minority but also some Hutus. "The message of the Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister today is a key step in getting our two countries closer," a French presidential advisor told reporters on Monday in response to the Rwandan report. Ever since the genocide, critics of France's…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

France faces rising calls to investigate Mali airstrike

NEWS

FRANCE faced mounting calls from rights groups yesterday to open an investigation into an airstrike by its forces in Mali that a United Nations probe said killed 19 civilians at a wedding party. U.N. investigators published a report on Tuesday about the January 3 strike, concluding that it killed 19 civilians and three armed men near the central Mali village of Bounti. France, which has more than 5,000 troops in Mali and neighbouring West African countries to battle militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, rejected the conclusions, saying it hit Islamist militants only. Domestic and international advocacy groups,…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Bollore Group fined $14.5 million for Africa graft

NEWS

FRENCH group Bollore will pay a 12 million-euro ($14.55 million) fine following a transaction with prosecutors in an alleged bribery case in Africa, France's financial prosecutor disclosed yesterday. The transaction effectively puts an end to the legal proceedings in the case against the conglomerate, led by billionaire Vincent Bollore, French Financial Prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert said in a written statement. "The investigation had concerned the corruption of foreign public officials, abuse of trust and complicity in breaches of trust committed between 2009 and 2011," the financial prosecutor said. Bollore's lawyer Olivier Baratelli and Bollore's spokesman didn't answer calls seeking comment.

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

France’s Sarkozy appears in court, corruption trial suspended

WORLD

TANGI SALAUN FORMER French President Nicolas Sarkozy briefly appeared in court on Monday to face trial on corruption accusations before judges suspended the hearings until November 26 to assess the health of one of his co-defendants. Prosecutors allege Sarkozy offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential information about an inquiry into allegations that Sarkozy had accepted illegal payments from the late L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy, who led France from 2007-2012 and has remained influential among conservatives, has denied any wrongdoing in all the investigations against…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

In wake of attacks, one French Muslim asks: does my country love me?

WORLD

ELIZABETH PINEAU NAOUELLE Garnoussi is a devout Muslim who was brought up in France, prays five times a day, enjoys her job working with local communities and covets her designer handbag. Raised by her grandparents - one Muslim, the other Catholic - the 36-year-old identifies as French, and defends France's secular values that separate religion from the state in public life. Yet in the aftermath of a spate of Islamist attacks she has begun to feel increasingly alienated in her own country. Compatriots tend to see her as a Muslim first, she said, and the government's response to the violence…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Six in custody over Nice church attack in France

WORLD

TWO more men were arrested in connection with a knife attack that left three dead at a church in Nice, bringing the number of people in custody to six as investigators look at the suspected assailant's last known contacts, a French police source said. The latest arrests took place on Saturday, the source said. An assailant shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in Nice on Thursday, in France's second deadly knife attack in two weeks with a suspected Islamist motive. The suspected attacker, a 21-year-old from Tunisia, was shot…