Emmanuel Macron's frustration has clearly been poorly received by his African counterparts. On Tuesday, January 7, African leaders, first and foremost Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, pushed back against remarks that the French president had made the day before during a speech to French ambassadors in Paris. Macron had accused African leaders of having "forgotten to say thank you" after France intervened militarily, "with reason," in the Sahel region of West Africa in 2013. The military operation, which had been requested by Mali, aimed to combat jihadist fighters. "It's no big matter, it will come with time," Macron said, in a tone of feigned irony. Without France's counterterrorism efforts, he argued, "none of them" would be governing a sovereign nation, and he spoke of "ingratitude" from his Sahelian counterparts.

The response was swift. In Chad, President Déby Itno expressed his "indignation" over comments he said "border on contempt for Africa and Africans." Speaking during a ceremony on Tuesday morning, Déby Itno said of Macron, "I think he's in the wrong era."

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