France starts 2025 with fresh controversy, questions over Africa
Voice of America
FILE - Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and French President Emmanuel Macron leave the Elysee Palace after a lunch in Paris on June 20, 2024. Senegal is one of several African nations that have asked France to withdraw its troops from their territory.
France starts 2025 with a further drawdown of its military presence in its former African colonies, and fresh tensions ignited this week with controversial remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron.
FILE - Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte gestures as she speaks during a press conference in Manila, Philippines, Feb. 7, 2025.
A man weeds with a hoe at his farm just outside Harare on Feb. 12, 2025. Using hand tools has been the norm since most experienced commercial farmers were driven off their land by the government. Women pick weeds from a groundnuts field in Filabusi district of Zimbabwe, about 500 kilometers from Harare, in December 2024.
President Donald Trump, accompanied by Marc Fogel, speaks in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington.
FILE - In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey conducts routine underway operations while transiting through the Taiwan Strait May 8, 2024.
FILE - Congolese volunteers and former rebels gather in a rally to mobilize against the possible invasion by M23 rebels in Bukavu on Jan. 30, 2025
FILE - Iranian journalists Niloofar Hamedi, right, and Elaheh Mohammadi flash the victory sign after being released from prison on Jan. 14, 2024, in Tehran, having been released on bail pending an appeal. Iran's courts announced on Feb. 11, 2025, that the two have been pardoned.
FILE - A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw, in this Feb. 28, 2013, illustration photo.
FILE - A security officer walks in Balidhidin village in Puntland's Bari region, Somalia, on Jan. 26, 2025. Somali officials said on Feb. 11, 2025, that an Islamic State terror attack on a Puntland military base the night before killed almost 100 people.
FILE - President Donald Trump shakes hands with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a joint press conference at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, Feb. 25, 2020.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the briefing with President of the European Investment Bank Nadia Calvino in Kyiv, Feb. 10, 2025.
Relatives and supporters of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip protest outside the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, Feb. 11, 2025.
FILE - A hotel building is damaged in an attack by Islamic State-Khorasan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 13, 2022.
FILE - A police vehicle is seen parked on a street in Singapore, May 31, 2019.