{"id":320750,"date":"2017-05-19T11:42:14","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T11:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=320750"},"modified":"2017-05-19T11:42:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T11:42:14","slug":"macron-arrives-in-mali-for-visit-to-french-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=320750","title":{"rendered":"Macron arrives in Mali for visit to French troops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Mali to meet French troops, less than a week after his inauguration as president.<\/p>\n

Mr Macron’s plane touched down at a French airbase in the north of the country just before 10:00 GMT (11:00 BST).<\/p>\n

He is due to speak with Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita during his short visit.<\/p>\n

French soldiers have been fighting Islamic militants in the north of the former French colony since 2013.<\/p>\n

Mr Macron – accompanied by Defence Minister Sylvie Goulard and her predecessor, now Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian – will review some of the 4,000 anti-insurgent troops France has deployed in the region.<\/p>\n

\"French<\/p>\n

This is Mr Macron’s second foreign trip as president. He visited German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin a day after his inauguration on Sunday.<\/p>\n

As president, he is expected to continue his predecessor’s policy regarding military presence in West Africa. However, the fact French Development Agency (AFD) chief Remy Riouxhas also joined the visit is seen as a sign he wishes to have an emphasis on economic development as well.<\/p>\n

France retains a strong influence in its former colonies.<\/p>\n

Mr Macron has talked about writing a new page in his country’s relationship on the continent, and of breaking away from the old neo-colonial networks.<\/p>\n

As a candidate, he stirred controversy at home by labelling France’s colonial war in Algeria a crime against humanity – something which was well-received in the former colonies.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Mali to meet French troops, less than a week after his inauguration as president. Mr Macron’s plane touched down at a French airbase in the north of the country just before 10:00 GMT (11:00 BST). He is due to speak with Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita during his short visit. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3758,7284],"class_list":["post-320750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-france","tag-macron-in-mali"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}