French President Emmanuel Macron will tour Africa this week to try to boost France's flagging influence on the continent and convince young people eyeing Europe's shores they have a future at home.

Macron's first African tour, which begins Tuesday, takes him to Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, two former French colonies that deposed strongmen leaders in recent years, as well as to Ghana.

It comes as Europe tries to find ways to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean without leaving them to the mercy of traffickers in transit countries like Libya, where they face torture, rape, and -- as a CNN report showed recently -- being sold into slavery.

Macron will also be seeking international backing for a new, five-nation African counter-terrorism force, which France hopes to see eventually take over the fight against jihadist groups in the Sahel region.