Felix Nkambeh Tih
29 November 2017•Update: 30 November 2017
ANKARA
French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed African slave traders for auctioning other Africans in Libya.
Macron made the remarks at a panel of nearly 1,000 students at the University of Ouagadougou during his visit to Burkina Faso Tuesday.
When a student accused western countries of being slow and timid in their response to reports about the sale trade in Libya, the French president appeared to have lost his temper.
''Who are the traffickers? They are Africans ... Show me a Belgian, French or German smuggler or whatever else! You will not find one!'' he said.
''There are African slave traders who trade other Africans, that is the reality. There are Europeans who benefit from this misery in Europe... These are crimes in both cases and we are fighting both cases.''
He slammed the sale of migrants in Libya.
"The tragedies unfolding before our eyes in Libya are a crime against humanity," he said.
Macron arrived in Burkina Faso on Monday night, the first stop on a three-day African tour to Ivory Coast where he will take part in the AU-EU meeting and later also visit Ghana.
The French president later calmed down and joked about a malfunctioning air conditioner.
"Somewhere, you speak to me as if I was still a colonial power, but I do not want to deal with electricity in the universities in Burkina Faso. This is the work of the president," he said.
President Kabore then got up and left the hall while smiling.
"Stay Here!," the French president said.
''He went to repair the air conditioning!" he then said.
"If President Kabore wants to leave the Franc Zone, he can do it when he wants!... As soon as he has finished repairing the air conditioner..."
