The clash between Sarah Knafo and Éléonore Caroit, Minister Delegate for Francophonie, ignited a firestorm on X. It all started with a message from the minister, who accused "the far right of unscrupulously spreading disinformation" following criticism of the €1,5 billion aid promised by Emmanuel Macron to the African countries of the Great Lakes region. “While some prefer to stir up fear, France is taking action to respond to one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time,” she wrote, citing alarming figures: “28 million people facing food insecurity, a woman raped every 4 minutes, a child raped every 30 minutes.” Before concluding: “What some cynically exploit, we are addressing with humanity and responsibility.”
A scathing reply from Sarah Knafo
MEP Sarah Knafo was quick to respond: "France is twice as indebted as the entire African continent. 9,8 million French people live in poverty, a French person is assaulted every minute, our army lacks ammunition and our schools are falling into ruin. But this woman is thinking about the African Great Lakes and playing the humanitarian with our money," she snapped.
Quoting Rousseau, “Beware of those cosmopolitans who search far and wide in their books for duties they disdain to fulfill around them,” Knafo concluded her attack on what she calls the government’s “humanitarian cynicism.” This confrontation is symptomatic of the growing divide between an executive branch that seeks to embody international solidarity and a right wing that denounces the abandonment of French priorities.
