Macron Hosts Africa Summits on Sudan, Post-Covid Finance

Macron Hosts Africa Summits on Sudan, Post-Covid Finance

This week's twin summits will aim to help Sudan into a new era and to fill a financing shortfall of almost $300 billion caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. (AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron this week hosts African leaders and chiefs of global financial institutions for twin summit meetings that will seek to help Sudan into a new democratic era and provide Africa with critical financing swept away by the Covid-19 pandemic.

A conference Monday attended by several heads of state will aim to rally support for the Sudan government under Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in the transition after the 2019 ousting of longtime president Omar al-Bashir.

This will be followed by a summit Tuesday on African economies that will try to fill a financing shortfall of almost $300 billion caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both meetings, held in a temporary exhibition center under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, will be a chance for Macron to show himself as a statesman on Africa whose influence goes beyond the continent's francophone regions.

With some two dozen African heads of state due to attend Tuesday's summit, it will be one of the biggest in person top level meetings held during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It should also