French President Emmanuel Macron began a three-country African tour on Saturday, 9 May, with a stop in Alexandria, where he joined Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to inaugurate a new campus for Senghor University, a French-language institution dedicated to training African professionals in governance, health, and sustainable development.
The new Senghor campus, located in the Borg El Arab area on the outskirts of Alexandria, spans ten feddans and includes academic buildings, a conference hall, and residential facilities. Macron described the project as “a remarkable global initiative” and praised Egypt’s commitment to investing EUR 60 million (EGP 3.72 billion) in the university, saying that francophonie “belongs to everyone who chooses to embrace the French language.”
The visit carried weight well beyond the ceremonial. The two leaders held expanded talks in which they reaffirmed their strategic partnership and discussed the war in Gaza, with President Al-Sisi outlining Egypt’s efforts to consolidate a ceasefire, facilitate humanitarian aid, and advance a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
Macron said France is keen to deepen its economic partnership with Egypt, praising the volume of bilateral trade and French investments in the country. Trade between the two nations reached a record USD 2.9 billion (EGP 152.9 billion) in 2024, with roughly 940 French companies currently operating across the Egyptian market.
The visit also produced an unlikely viral moment with videos spread across Egyptian social media of Macron jogging through central Alexandria with no road closures, traffic flowing normally around him. Local commentators hailed the scene as a testament to Egypt’s stability. The day ended on a more ceremonial note, with the two leaders touring the Qaitbay Citadel before Macron, at a state dinner, called Alexandria “a global beacon of science and culture.”
From Egypt, Macron travels to Kenya, where he will co-host the “Africa Forward” summit, the first such gathering in an Anglophone country since he took office in 2017, before wrapping up the tour in Addis Ababa on Wednesday for talks at the African Union headquarters. The trip is widely seen as France’s bid to rebuild its standing on a continent where anti-French sentiment has been rising, particularly in former West African colonies.
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