Francophonie summit opens in France

HAUTS-DE-FRANCE, France

The summit of the Francophonie which gathers most of the world's French-speaking countries kicks off on Friday in France, a first in 33 years.

The organization (OIF) gathers 54 members amongst which 29 are African.

For two days, delegations from around the world will be hosted in Villers-Cotterêts, (France). The theme of the year "create, innovate and do business in French".

It puts under the spotlight "themes which were shared by young francophones around the globe when asked to take a survey in 2020", OIF secretary general Louise Mushikiwabo revealed.

French is one of the 5 most used languages in the world. According to the OIF over 321 million people speak it. If the number of speakers continues to rise in the world, "teaching of French has shrunk", Mushikiwabo told French newspaper Ouest France.

France received the CMF presidency from Tunisia for the next two years, as the country hosting the 19th Francophonie summit in October 2024.

The Francophonie summit will open on 4 October 2024 at the Cité internationale de la langue française, in Villers-Cotterêts, a place entirely dedicated to the French language and French-speaking cultures, inaugurated on 30 October 2023 by M. Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic. The summit will continue in Paris on 5 October 2024. 

The Francophonie is a platform through which Emmanuel Macron can meet with African leaders.

Most member of the Francophonie are African states. This comes at a time where France's so-called privilege ties with Africa is put to the test.

Countries in the Sahel have shown will to exert more of their sovereignty and notably relegated French to a status of "working language" .

Following military coups in the region, Niger, where the OIF was created, Mali and Burkina Faso have been suspended from the instances of the body.

Mali and Burkina Faso, retrograded French to the level of "working language".