Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

French Chief of the Defence Staff, General Henri Bentegeat, is in South Africa on an official four-day visit.

General Bentegeat arrived in the country yesterday and will tomorrow meet his South African counterpart General Siphiwe Nyanda.

He is also expected to hold meetings today with the government's top authorities such as the Presidency and Foreign Affairs.

He is also expected to visit several SANDF units in and outside Pretoria.

General Bentegeat was the Chief of the Military Staff of President Jacques Chirac from April 1999 until October 2002, when he became Chief of the Defence Staff.

He is regarded as an influential figure on drafting of the many facets of the French military policy in Africa.

General Bentegeat is also expected to present the facets of the policy during a conference to be held at the Institute for Security Studies in Brooklyn on Wednesday.

The French Embassy in Pretoria released a statement today detailing the involvement of French military personnel in peace missions in Africa.

It said about 1 100 French soldiers were in Senegal, 960 in Chad, 500 in Ivory Coast and 800 in Gabon.

Since 1998, France had been actively involved in the RECAMP programmes aimed at helping the African States to acquire military capabilities for peace-keeping operations, said the statement.

The programmes also contributed to the development and the strengthening of the security role played by African sub-regional organisations, it added.

It said France was in fact re-orientating its help to take into account the will expressed by the African nations to assume the leading role in the management of crises on the African continent.

RECAMP 3 was organised in the SADC region, with among others joint peacekeeping exercices in Tanzania, South Africa in February 2003 and in Mozambique in June 2004.

The new programme, RECAMP 4, will begin in Benin in December 2004.