Nicolas Sarkozy This may come as a surprise, but France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy may have visited more African countries than any other Western leader. He began in 2007; visiting Senegal and giving a very controversial speech that more or less lambasted Africans for not stepping up to the plate. That same year he was also in Gabon and Libya, meeting with Muammar Gaddafi in the latter after the dictator released six foreign medical workers. In 2008 the French president visited South Africa - the first state strip with his new bride Carla Bruni - and Angola, celebrating a massive state contract signed by French giant Thale. The next year Sarkozy was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, promoting an ambitious financial plan aimed to stop conflict in the region. He swung by Chad to press for political reform and to meet French soldiers training Chadian troops. Sarkozy visited Gabon for President Omar Bongo’s funeral, then went to Rwanda, where he admitted mistakes by the French government helped lead to the genocide there
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:29:51 +0000
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