2023-08-04 14:44:00
Niger’s military junta has denounced military cooperation with France. Paris says only the government of Mohamed Bazoum can break the agreements.
GA with AFP Anti-French slogans chanted by Nigerien demonstrators in support of the putschist soldiers. © Djibo Issifou / dpa / Djibo Issifou/dpa
A West African delegation, dispatched to Niger, left the country overnight from Thursday to Friday after presenting proposals for a “way out of the crisis” to members of the junta. The latter had announced the rupture of military cooperation with France. On Thursday evening, the putschists denounced the security and defense cooperation agreements with France, the former colonial power which deployed a military contingent of 1,500 soldiers to Niger to fight terrorism in this region facing jihadist violence.
Paris responded on Friday that only “the legitimate Nigerien authorities” had the power to modify these agreements. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that these authorities were the only ones recognized by France and the international community as a whole. During the night of Thursday to Friday, a delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), led by former Nigerian President Abdulsalami Abubakar, left Niamey after a few hours.
READ ALSONiger: President Bazoum fears the “devastating” consequences of the coup
Although the emissaries did not meet the head of the junta, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, nor the overthrown President Mohamed Bazoum, they spoke at the airport with putschist soldiers and discussed “the latest proposals for resolving the crisis of ECOWAS”, according to the Nigerien government daily The Sahel. The German government called on Friday to continue “mediation efforts” to find a political solution and avoid any armed intervention. On July 30, ECOWAS, which imposed heavy sanctions on Niamey, gave the putschists until Sunday to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, who was overthrown on July 26, or risk using “force”.
A meeting of ECOWAS chiefs of staff is due to end on Friday afternoon in Abuja, when several West African armies, including that of Senegal, say they are ready to send soldiers if a military intervention is decided. “It is unlikely that the intervention of extra-regional forces can improve the situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow, while calling for a “rapid return to constitutional order” in Niger.
“The junta promises to retaliate”
The putschists, who promised an “immediate response” to “any aggression” from an ECOWAS country, also announced the lifting of the curfew in place since July 26. Friday morning, a hundred demonstrators from several West African countries gathered in Niamey to protest against any military intervention in Niger.
READ ALSODoes France really depend on uranium from Niger? And in Tahoua (western Niger), hundreds of people gathered “to provide unwavering support to the President of the Republic Mohamed Bazoum and demand his unconditional release”, according to a local journalist on the spot. President Bazoum spoke on Thursday in a column published by the American daily Washington Post. He warned of the “devastating” consequences of the coup for the world and the Sahel, which he said could come under the “influence” of Russia through the paramilitary group Wagner. “I call on the US government and the entire international community to help restore constitutional order,” he wrote, “as a hostage,” in the statement.
Mr. Bazoum, 63, has been detained with his family since the day of the putsch in his presidential residence. In addition to the denunciation of the military agreements, the Nigerien ambassador in Paris was sacked by the putschists, as were the representatives of Niger in the United States, Togo and Nigeria. Niger’s ambassador to France, Aïchatou Boulama Kané, told AFP on Friday “to always be” the ambassador “of the legitimate president Mohamed Bazoum”, adding that she rejected “as null and void” the decision of the putschists .
French media censorship
On Thursday, the programs of Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the news television channel France 24 were interrupted in Niger, “a decision taken outside any conventional and legal framework”, according to the parent company of the two media, France World Media.
READ ALSONiger: “The jihadists must rub their hands” France condemned “very strongly” this decision, as well as the European Union on Friday morning. RFI and France 24 are already suspended in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, where the ruling Niger military sent delegations on Wednesday. Incidents on Sunday during a demonstration in front of the French embassy in Niamey led to the evacuation on Tuesday and Wednesday of 577 French people.
On Friday morning, a Spanish Air Force military plane landed in Niamey, to evacuate Spanish nationals – estimated at around 70 – wishing to leave Niger, according to Madrid. The United States, one of Niger’s main partners with France, for its part chartered a plane to get its non-essential personnel out of the country and President Joe Biden called “for the immediate release of President Bazoum”. Washington and Paris are deploying 1,100 and 1,500 soldiers respectively to Niger to help the country in its fight against jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
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