Like his predecessors, the French president has played the role of policeman of Africa during his five years in office, also deploying an anti-terrorist security umbrella (Operation Barkhane) that covers Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, as well as the Central African Republic, and supporting Nigeria against the jihadist threat of Boko Haram.

According to Olakounle Gilles Yabi, former West Africa project director for the International Crisis Group, ‘the field of intervention of France’s armed forces, with the agreement of local countries, has never been so big’. More than 55 years after many African countries gained independence, France still maintains a network of military bases in Africa, though these have been reorganised.