2023-04-28 00:53:15
The Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mr. Hassoumi Massaoudou welcomed, on the night of Wednesday April 26, 2023, in the company of the Ambassador of France to Niger, HE. Sylvain Itté, the first wave of Nigerien nationals evacuated from Kharthoum, the Sudanese capital, the scene of bloody fighting for a few days. A total of 42 compatriots were able to be exfiltrated thanks to the support of France, which then took charge of transporting them to Niamey, via Djibouti, where they camped in the base of the French army.
When they got off the plane, shortly before midnight, the 42 survivors of the Sudanese crisis were welcomed on the tarmac of Diori Hamani International Airport by Minister of State Hassoumi Massoudou and the French Ambassador to Niger. It is in an atmosphere marked by strong emotion and joy that our nationals saved from the hell of war have set foot on Niger soil.
Delivering his impressions immediately to the media, the Minister of State, Mr. Hassoumi Massoudou, expressed his gratitude and gratitude to the French authorities and soldiers for their precious support which made it possible, first of all, to evacuate our compatriots from Khartoum in Djibouti, then to transport them to Niamey by a military plane of the French army.
“I would like to welcome our compatriots who have just returned to their country in extremely difficult conditions. This is a group of forty-two (42) Nigeriens, including ten (10) embassy staff and thirty-two (32) trainees from the dressed corps and students, who were exfiltrated from Khartoum by the Special Forces. French companies based in Djibouti. This is an opportunity for us, on behalf of the government, to express our deep gratitude to the French authorities for granting our request to secure and evacuate our compatriots and to express to all of the actors who were particularly involved in the success of this operation. it is in particular about the elements of the special forces for the mission which they carried out sometimes at the risk of their life, with the commander of the French air base of Djibouti for the assumption of responsibility which was assured to them and particularly with the Ambassador from France to Niger for his involvement and his availability, which were decisive for the success of the operation. I would like to note that this is the first group of sub-Saharan African nationals to return home, although more are on the way, and more importantly, our compatriots are the largest group to be evacuated by France after French nationals. This first group is made up of Embassy staff and members of their families, as other countries have had to do for their diplomats as well, as well as trainee officers from the Gendarmerie and the National Guard and some students. We still have compatriots in Sudan, mainly students who number around forty, and we are working to evacuate them. I would like to assure them and reassure our compatriots of our firm will and our determination to ensure that despite the difficult conditions, that our nationals are secure and brought back to the country in good health”, underlined the head of Nigerien diplomacy.
For his part, the French Ambassador to Niger, HE.Sylvain Itté, hailed this operation to evacuate Niger nationals thanks to the exemplary cooperation that binds our two countries. “It is a moving moment for us to see these Nigerian compatriots returning to their country, especially since they arrived in good health. Since Sunday, we have been in constant contact with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to ensure the success of this mission which, it must be said, took place under extremely difficult conditions. I must also congratulate the evacuees for their courage because it really must be pointed out, they went through a painful ordeal since during the rallying of the French Embassy in Khartoum, they even came under fire. However, despite these difficult conditions, we have insisted on carrying out the mission entrusted to us by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on the instructions of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Mac-ron who insisted that nationals of friendly countries whose Niger, be rescued. This rightly demonstrates the exemplary nature of the fairly solid relations between France and Niger,” said SE. Sylvain Itte.
In a testimony he gave on the adventures of their evacuation, the vice consul of Niger in Khartoum, Mr. Tahirou Boureima, indicated that the evacuation operation was far from easy.
“In the name of all these people who have just been evacuated, we would like to sincerely thank and congratulate the Nigerien government and the French authorities for the success of this operation which was, to tell the truth, an operation of evacuation. We were on the ground and we had witnessed how dangerous, not to say perilous, this mission was. Our consulate in Khartoum is less than a kilometer from the French Embassy, but it was quite a challenge to cover this distance because we had to walk with children and women while the bullets rained down. This is the place to particularly thank the Minister of State in charge of Foreign Affairs for his personal involvement as well as his determination since the beginning of the crisis to ensure that the operation takes place in the best conditions. We would also like to express our gratitude to the French authorities as well as to the crisis unit of the Quai d’Orsay, as well as the elements of the French forces in Djibouti for all the concern we received during this operation, “said confided Mr. Tahirou Boureima.
By Aïssa Alzouma, AP/MAE/C
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