Tinubu's threats were seen by the juntas as the product of his collusion with France's President Emmanuel Macron who was pushing for the restoration of civilian rule under the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum who has been under house arrest in Niamey for the past three years...

CÔTE D'IVOIRE: On the agenda for Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara after a 29 October presidential lecture at the World Trade Organization whose director-general former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is an old ally was a trip to Paris including dinner with President Emmanuel Macron with a series of knotty issues: the fragile détente between the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the Alliance des États du Sahel (AES) efforts to reform the CFA franc cost controls for French firms building the Abidjan metro and a compromise on the leadership of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) before its 15-16 November summit...

Tuggar's team and its Nigérien counterparts got on well enough – but there has been no melting of the ice between Tinubu who is particularly close to President Emmanuel Macron's government in Paris and Tiani whose army is one of the more formidable in the region...

France's President Emmanuel Macron used his presidency of the G7 to push commitments promoting local processing of minerals in African countries to reduce reliance on China for critical minerals...

The two major opponents are France and Spain with French President Emmanuel Macron stating after the summit that return hubs break ‘the fundamental principles on which the EU was built'...

France's President Emmanuel Macron had initially invited President Cyril Ramaphosa to represent Africa but the Trump administration had threatened to boycott if South Africa attended...