2023-07-31 01:30:45
For some in Niger, France is no longer welcome. This Sunday, Nigeriens were called to demonstrate in front of the French Embassy – which has been degraded – in support of the military coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum and placed Abdourahamane Tiani in power. At the origin of this march, the anti-French civil movement M 62, which launched this call to demonstrate despite the ban on assembly.
The organization intends “to warn ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and France against any military intervention in Niger” and “to demand the immediate departure of French troops and that of the ambassador of France “.
In the capital of Niger, there is a large demonstration organized by the M62 party in support of the CNSP (the power of the military who staged the coup).
Numerous slogans against France and the entire West are heard at the demonstration. Many Russian flags have been spotted. pic.twitter.com/Dxw57D7zAF
— Spriter Team (@SpriterTeam) July 30, 2023
“The army carried out its putsch, but at the same time, the coup is being organized with a spiral of small groups of civil society overseen by the army”, explains to the Parisian Gilles-Claude Mbong Etoundi, television journalist Cameroonian public. These groups, grouped under the banner of the M 62 movement, “give credit to the coup”, he continues.
Movement opposed to Barkhane
The movement was created in August 2022, reports the media DW. 15 civil society organizations had united against Operation Barkhane, carried out in the Sahel and the Sahara by the French army against armed jihadist groups. The movement then called in particular for mobilization and collective prayers against the presence of French soldiers in the region.
Although it claims autonomy vis-à-vis the French presence in Niger, M 62 “does not necessarily have a pro-Russian hue”, according to Gilles-Claude Mbong Etoundi, at least not officially, although the flags and placards Moscow’s honor flourished this Sunday among the crowd, which notably chanted “Russia, Russia, Russia!” »
This Sunday in Niamey, demonstrators tore down the plaque displaying “French Embassy in Niger”, before trampling it on the tarmac and replacing it with Russian and Nigerien flags. “Long live Putin”, “long live Russia”, “down with France”, also shouted demonstrators.
Abdoulaye Seydou in the sights of justice
Last January, the coordinator of the M 62 movement Abdoulaye Seydou was placed in preventive detention for “complicity in arson” on a gold panning site, in connection with a terrorist attack which took place in October 2022. A decision which had aroused the protest of his supporters. “He went to do his job as a civil society actor and human rights defender,” defended Abdoulaye Seydou, secretary general of the Alternative Espaces Citoyens association, to RFI.
The leader of the anti-French movement was also sentenced on April 14 to nine months in prison for “disseminating data likely to disturb public order”. Following the military coup and the seizure of power by General Tiani, the M 62 movement demanded, among other things, the release of the militant, reports TF1.
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