Tanzania

French presence

As of 1 January 2026, just over 200 French nationals were registered in Zimbabwe. .

Visits

The last minister to visit Zimbabwe was Anne-Marie Idrac, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, in 2009 (first ministerial visit since 1996). In 2015, Harare hosted bilateral political consultations at the level of Secretaries-General. On this basis and following several visits to Paris by Zimbabwe’s Ministers responsible for economic issues, President Mnangagwa visited France in October 2019 to participate in the Global Fund’s Replenishment Conference. Vice President Constantino Chiwenga visited Paris in July 2024. First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa met with Brigitte Macron at the Élysée Palace on 21 May 2025. Zimbabwe’s Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry met with her French counterpart in Paris in September 2025.

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

In the area of culture, the Alliance Française branches in Harare and Bulawayo, with an annex in Victoria Falls, help promote French and Francophone culture. The French Embassy also holds three main events, the Harare Jazz Festival, Francophonie Week (with 11 co-organizer countries in 2026), and the Fête de la Musique, which are all very popular among the Zimbabwan people.

France and Zimbabwe concluded a cooperation agreement in 1986 and one of its main aims is to promote the French language. The Alliance Française branches in Harare and Bulawayo are affiliated with the French Embassy and responsible for language cooperation. Since 2021, French language courses have been offered to staff of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Parliament and since 2024, staff of the Ministry of Finance.

A joint scientific platform with two main universities, the University of Zimbabwe and the National University of Science and Technology, has been developed since 2007 by the local branch of the Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the only local branch of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the world, and the local branch of the Research Institute for Development (IRD). It is focused on research and training of young researchers in the areas of sustainable development and life sciences.

The  nearly €850,000 CAZCOM project with CIRAD, IRD and the University of Zimbabwe, followed by the €2 million PACMAN project led to the creation of a molecular biology laboratory in June 2023 to detect animal and zoonotic diseases at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare. 

When it comes to cultural heritage, since 2022 AFD has been conducting a €4 million project to support the restoration of the Great Zimbabwe historic site, on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

  Since 2017, the University of Toulouse has been conducting a project in partnership with the University of Zimbabwe on the dating of rock paintings in the Matopos Hills (near Bulawayo).