The Élysée portrays the plan to create a huge swathe of greenery across the Sahara and Sahel as the ultimate solution to the problems of unemployment, lawlessness and desertification in that part of the African continent. However, the French presidency's sudden interest in the Great Green Wall project – which was officially endorsed by the African Union back in 2007 - also has ulterior motives. And as Fanny Pigeaud reports, some experts are sceptical about its benefits.
Since the start of 2021 the Great Green Wall or GGW has featured regularly in speeches by French president Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. This ambitious project that involves a huge swathe of the African continent also cropped up in debates at the National Assembly and Senate in Paris during mid-May Parliamentary sessions concerning legislation on international development and the fight against global inequalities.
