France’s development agency is coming under fire for providing €65 million to finance an urban mobility programme in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé, at a time when France faces austerity and decaying infrastructure.
“Macron’s government would rather spend €65.5 million on improving the city centre of Yaoundé in Cameroon than maintain the Château de Chambord, a jewel of our heritage, which needs €37 million to prevent it from falling into ruin”, said National Rally (RN) deputy Guillaume Bigot.
The decision to send the money to Yaoundé was “a scandal”, said the deputy.
He posted a video of the Château de Chambord, an iconic castle considered a masterpiece of French Renaissance architecture, but which urgently needs €37 million for repairs.
❌ QUEL SCANDALE ! La macronie préfère subventionner pour 65,5 millions € l'amélioration du centre-ville de Yaoundé au Cameroun, plutôt que d'entretenir le château de Chambord, joyau de notre patrimoine, qui a besoin de 37 millions € pour ne pas tomber en ruine. https://t.co/kYgKJNaA2Y pic.twitter.com/8F4PLHoqxz
— Guillaume Bigot (@Guillaume_Bigot) September 21, 2025
The château restoration project focusses on saving the François I wing, which is at risk of structural collapse.
It will cover essential work such as reinforcing foundations, treating cracks, securing beams, and stabilising walls and floors.
Private donors and public fundraising campaigns are attempting to secure the necessary funding, as the château is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of France’s most visited landmarks.
In December 2017, Emmanuel Macron celebrated his 40th birthday there.
While this castle crumbles, the French government is paying for infrastructure in Cameroon in a programme that began in January 2021 as part of a debt reduction and development contract.
It aims to accelerate Yaoundé’s urban transition, in a city which is experiencing rapid population growth and is now home to 4.3 million people.
“The objective of the project is the redevelopment of a dozen sites in Yaoundé to increase the efficiency of the city’s road network, facilitate the use of public transport, improve the quality of pedestrian paths, strengthen road safety, reduce gender inequalities and better connect the sites to the surrounding urban fabric”, France’s development agency, the ADF, stated on its website.
The project includes redevelopment of three major intersections, development of two interurban bus stations and pedestrian paths, next to some other, smaller infrastructure works.
When finished, the increase of public transport could lead to a serious reduction in carbon emissions as well, says the aid agency.
“The project will offer users and residents new quality public spaces, open to all,” AFD stated.
In February 2025, the government development agency came under fire from Sarah Knafo, French MEP and vice-president of Éric Zemmour’s hard-right party Reconquête!.
She said it squandered taxpayers’ money in pursuit of questionable goals.
Knafo, herself a former civil servant, provided a list of financed projects she thought represented poor use of public funds.
France, for example, gave enormous amounts of money to China, “the world’s economic leading power”, and also millions to “institutionalise and scale-up gender-responsive budgeting in Jordan”.
In May, the magazine Marianne also revealed millions of euros in French public subsidies went to pro-Palestinian NGOs which it alleged were close to Hamas.
