Mr Macron is in Cameroon on a three-nation tour of the continent, which will also take him to Benin and Guinea-Bissau.

France is reconfiguring its position in the Sahel, after falling out with the military government in Mali and announcing it would withdraw its troops from there.

The jihadist insurgency began in northern Mali in 2012 and hit neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.

Across the region, thousands of people have been killed and more than two million have fled their homes.