Francophonie summit opens in 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 is "create, innovate and do business in French".

It puts under the spotlight "concerns 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 is declining", Mushikiwabo told French newspaper Ouest France.

France received the ministerial presidency of the summit from Tunisia for two years.

The Francophonie summit openx on 4 October at the Cité internationale de la langue française, in Villers-Cotterêts, a venue entirely dedicated to the French language and French-speaking cultures.

It was inaugurated on 30 October last year by president Emmanuel Macron.

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

Most member of the Francophonie are African states. This comes at a time when France's so-called special 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" [Editor's Note: Mali and Burkina Faso did]".

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.