France says it will evacuate its citizens from Niger very soon
2023.08.01 03:54
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Nigerien security forces launch tear gas to disperse pro-junta demonstrators gathered outside the French embassy, in Niamey, the capital city of Niger July 30, 2023. REUTERS/Souleymane Ag Anara
By Michel Rose and Sudip Kar-Gupta
PARIS (Reuters) -France will evacuate its citizens from Niger very soon, the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday, days after a junta overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum and seized power in the west African country.
The overthrow last Wednesday of President Bazoum – the seventh military takeover in less than three years in West and Central Africa – has sent shockwaves across the region, pitting Niger’s former Western allies against the likes of Russia and other junta leaders in the region.
Former colonial power France has had troops in the region for a decade helping to fight an Islamist insurgency, but some locals say they want the former colonial ruler to stop intervening in their affairs.
On Sunday, supporters of the junta burned French flags and attacked the French embassy in Niger’s capital, Niamey, prompting police to fire volleys of tear gas in response.
“Evacuation is being prepared. It will happen very soon,” the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told BFM TV late on Monday that the protest in front of the embassy and the ensuing accusations that France shot at the crowd – which it denies – “have all the usual ingredients of destabilisation, the Russian-African way”.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, last week welcomed the coup in Niger, and said his forces were available to restore order.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the situation in Niger was “cause for serious concern” and called for a swift return to constitutional order.
According to the French foreign ministry website, there were just under 1,200 French nationals in Niger in 2022.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra tweeted that the Dutch embassy in Niamey “is following the situation closely and is in contact with about 25 Dutch people known to the Foreign Ministry”.
The coup has raised fears for the security of the Sahel region. Niger is the world’s seventh-biggest producer of uranium, the radioactive metal widely used for nuclear energy and treating cancer.
Regional bloc ECOWAS has imposed sanctions, including a halt in all financial transactions and a national assets freeze, and said it could authorise force to reinstate Bazoum, who is still locked in his palace.
But the juntas of neighbouring Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea all voiced their support for the coup’s leaders on Monday.
