PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will leave Monday on a five-day trip visiting Madagascar and Mauritius as well as French territories in the Indian Ocean, the Elysee Palace said.
Macron will start off his trip in the cyclone-hit French overseas territory of Mayotte, followed by the French island of La Reunion on Tuesday, then Madagascar on Wednesday and Mauritius on Friday.
The trip will focus on France’s strategy in the Indian Ocean.
“We have a common future to build,” said an adviser to Macron, who will attend the fifth summit of the Indian Ocean Commission in Madagascar.
The integration of Mayotte into the Indian Ocean Commission — which includes Madagascar, Mauritius, the Union of the Comoros, Seychelles and La Reunion — will be on the summit’s agenda, the Elysee said.
In Mayotte, Macron will meet locals and officials and hold a meeting focusing on the agricultural sector, to “ensure that the after-effects, scars and fractures left by the cyclone are being resolved,” the Elysee added.
French president Macron to make five-day trip to Indian Ocean region
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French president Macron to make five-day trip to Indian Ocean region
- Macron will start off his trip in the cyclone-hit French overseas territory of Mayotte
- The trip will focus on France’s strategy in the Indian Ocean
Uganda partially restores internet after president wins 7th term
- “The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report
KAMPALA: Ugandan authorities have partially restored internet services late after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term to extend his rule into a fifth decade with a landslide victory rejected by
the opposition.
Users reported being able to reconnect to the internet and some internet service providers sent out a message to customers saying the regulator had ordered them to restore services excluding social media.
“We have restored internet so that businesses that rely on internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies said. He added that the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
The state-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off internet to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.” The opposition, however, criticized the move saying it was to cement control over the electoral process and guarantee a win for the incumbent.
The electoral body in the East African country on Saturday declared Museveni the winner of Thursday’s poll with 71.6 percent of the vote, while his rival pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was credited with 24 percent
of the vote.
A joint report from an election observer team from the African Union and other regional blocs criticized the involvement of the military in the election and the authorities’ decision to cut
off internet.
“The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report.
In power since 1986 and currently Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, Museveni’s latest win means he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
He is widely thought to be preparing his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to take over from him. Kainerugaba is currently head of the military and has expressed presidential ambitions.
Wine, who was taking on Museveni for a second time, has rejected the results of the latest vote and alleged mass fraud during the election.
Scattered opposition protests broke out late on Saturday after results were announced, according to a witness and police.
In Magere, a suburb in Kampala’s north where Wine lives, a group of youths burned tires and erected barricades in the road prompting police to respond with tear gas.
Police spokesperson Racheal Kawala said the protests had been quashed and that arrests were made but said the number of those detained would be released later.
Wine’s whereabouts were unknown early on Sunday after he said in a post on X he had escaped a raid by the military on his home. People close to him said he remained at an undisclosed location in Uganda. Wine was briefly held under house arrest following the previous election in 2021.
Wine has said hundreds of his supporters were detained during the months leading up to the vote and that others have been tortured.
Government officials have denied those allegations and say those who have been detained have violated the law and will be put through due process.
