DR Congo, Rwanda clash over leadership as Francophone summit opens

France's President Emmanuel Macron attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh on November 15, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP)

A summit of French-speaking nations opened Sunday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, with leaders including France’s President Emmanuel Macron seeking to avoid a walkout by the group’s biggest African member.

The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), a post-colonial entity resembling the Commonwealth, gathers around 90 states and nations including 53 full members, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Canada.

But the two-day talks are being overshadowed by tensions between two men, DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, and a row over the organisation’s new head.

Rwanda’s Louise Mushikiwabo has led the OIF for eight years and is running for a third term, but the DR Congo is strongly opposed — and has threatened to quit the organisation if she is re-elected on Monday.

Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 armed group’s activities inside DR Congo, which Kigali denies.

Last year Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso withdrew from the OIF after successive coups that saw Paris-friendly governments replaced by pro-Russian juntas.

The departure of DR Congo — the second most Francophone country after France with 57.3 million speakers, according to the OIF — would be a major blow.

In his opening speech to an audience that included Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Manet, Macron called for unity.

The enlargement of the OIF, which promotes economic and cultural cooperation, “requires us to build consensus in order to preserve the union”, the French president said.

Warning against “internal fractures” in the organisation, he said: “We must ensure that we preserve what constitutes its strength — namely, its unity.”

• France’s influence –

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The row has revived debate over the influence of France, the former colonial ruler of many member states and the Francophonie organisation’s biggest donor.

Rwanda has denounced Paris’s involvement in the election of a new secretary general, saying Macron asked Kagame to withdraw his candidate — a request it said it rejected.

The news raised eyebrows. “With that intervention we’re going backwards, to the idea that France decides,” one member of a non-African delegation said Saturday on condition of anonymity.

France had supported Rwanda’s Mushikiwabo in 2018 as ties warmed between Paris and Kigali, but had publicly expressed neutrality in this year’s contest.

After news of Macron’s efforts emerged, his office on Saturday said Paris had suggested both the Congolese and Rwandan candidates withdraw in the interests of unity.

DR Congo has proposed Juliana Lumumba, the daughter of national hero Patrice Lumumba, but said Saturday it could withdraw her candidacy if Rwanda did likewise.

This would make former Romanian prime minister Dacian Ciolos the favourite, according to summit sources, although Mauritania’s Coumba Ba, a former minister, is also running.

Canada — the second biggest donor, providing 25 percent of the budget, represented in Cambodia by Prime Minister Mark Carney — has stressed the need for consensus.

Macron is the first French president since 1993 to visit Cambodia, once part of France’s Indochina colonies where just 0.16 percent of the population currently speaks French, according to the OIF.

His trip comes against a backdrop of mass demonstrations at home, five months ahead of presidential elections that the far-right sees as its best chance yet to obtain power.

AFP