, Columnist
Emmanuel Macron Is Dancing with the Dictators
France accommodated military juntas elsewhere in Africa but is now embarrassed by the coup in Guinea.
Macron with French troops in Mali in 2017
Photographer: CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
A week after Colonel Mamady Doumbouya seized power in Guinea, France is still unsure how to respond to the crisis unfolding in its former West African colony. For now, it seems content to let multilateral bodies such as the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States try and find a resolution.
They are unlikely to get very far. The AU has suspended Guinea’s membership, and Ecowas has held a “positive” meeting with the coup leader in Conakry, the country’s capital on the Atlantic coast. But there is little hope for a speedy restoration of a civilian government.