2023-09-02 22:59:21
Demonstrators against the presence of French soldiers in Niger, September 2 in Niamey. STRINGER / REUTERS
Several thousand people gathered on Saturday September 2 in Niamey and Ouallam (south-west) to demand the departure of French forces from Niger, a request from the military regime that came to power by a coup d’etat at the end of July, noted journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In the capital, the rally was held near a Nigerien base housing French soldiers, at the call of several civil society coalitions hostile to the French military presence. “French army, get out of here! »could we read in particular on the sign of a demonstrator.
To the demonstrators who arrived on Saturday morning, another procession joined in the afternoon to form a dense crowd on the roundabout “Squadron”, one of the main places for this kind of gathering that has taken place in Niamey since the July 26 coup. Another demonstration took place in Ouallam (south-west) in front of a military base, headquarters of the anti-jihadist operation Almahaou, where Nigerien and French soldiers live together, according to images broadcast on national television.
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“French soldiers, we have come to bring you a message to tell you that we no longer need you”, one of the protesters said into a megaphone. Diplomatic tensions are at their height between the ruling military regime and France, which does not recognize their legitimacy, while 1,500 French soldiers are stationed in Niger to participate in the anti-jihadist fight under bilateral military agreements.
Immunity removed from the ambassador
On August 3, the generals who took power in a coup had denounced several of these agreements. These texts all contain different notices for their effective end, one of which, relating to a 2012 text, was one month, according to the military.
At the end of August, during a meeting in Niamey, Colonel Ibro Amadou, a member of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CNSP, perpetrators of the coup) declared that “the fight will not stop until the day there are no longer any French soldiers in Niger”. Niger also withdrew the immunity and diplomatic visa of French Ambassador Sylvain Itté and demanded his « expulsion »according to an order from the Ministry of the Interior dated Thursday and an order from the High Court of Niamey on Friday, consulted by AFP.
According to the latter document, these decisions are justified in particular by “unwarranted hostility” of France towards Niger and the fact that the presence of Mr. Itté on Nigerien territory presents “serious risk of disturbing public order”.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron praised Mr. Itté’s work and repeated that he was still stationed at the embassy in Niamey. According to article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the premises of an embassy are « inviolable » and it is not permitted to the agents of the State where they are “to enter there, except with the consent of the head of the mission”.
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