28 November 2017•Update: 28 November 2017
By Felix Nkambeh Tih
ANKARA
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged African youth to block the road to extremism.
Addressing students at Burkina Faso's capital, Ougadougu, Macron said: "Your responsibility is immense, it is time today to stop religious extremism...We must eradicate the financing of this extremism."
Macron noted that both France and Burkina Faso had been jostled by terrorism.
"Our two countries have been hit and bruised by terrorism that was brought up in the Iraqi-Syrian zone but also in the Sahelo-Saharan region," he said.
He also praised former President Francois Hollande for sending troops to Mali in 2013, to fight militant groups in the Sahel region.
The French force, Operation Barkhane, has 3,500 troops deployed in five West African countries: Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad.
"We did it because France was always on the side of Africa, when its stability, its life was at stake. That's our history," he said.
Political conflicts are another big issue in Africa, the French president said.
"Africa has never experienced so many internal conflicts, blockages around its constitutions and elections, and I will not give you lessons in this area. A French president does not have to explain how we organize elections, how we organize a democratic life, " he said.
Macron arrived Monday night in Ouagadougou, the first stop on a three-day African tour that will take him to Ivory Coast and Ghana.
