2023-08-03 09:36:11
General Abdourahamane Tiani, who took power in Niamey at the head of putschist soldiers, estimated on Wednesday August 2 that the French “have no objective reason to leave Niger”when several hundred of them were evacuated by Paris.
French nationals “have never been the object of the slightest threat” and they don’t have “no objective reason to leave Niger”said General Tiani in a televised speech on the eve of the Independence Day of the country, a former French colony.
He denounced “use of military force” during the demonstration Sunday in Niamey in front of the French Embassy where tear gas and ” weapons “, according to the Niger military, were used to disperse the crowd. Paris had denied the use of “lethal means”.
Regarding the sanctions imposed by the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and their threat to use force, he said he rejected them “en bloc” and refuse “any threat”.
“Refuse to give in”
“The CNSP (National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland, in power) rejects these sanctions as a whole and refuses to give in to any threat and wherever they come from”did he declare. “We refuse any interference in the internal affairs of Niger”he added.
According to him, “these sanctions are cynical and iniquitous” aim to “humiliating the FDS (Defence and Security Forces), Niger and its people” and to make “the untenable situation and the ungovernable country”. “Nowhere in this contemptuous and belligerent attitude the leaders” West Africans “did not take into account the sovereignty of our country”he said.
ECOWAS ordered an economic blockade of Niger, deciding the suspension “immediate” of “all commercial and financial transactions” with Niger and threatened to use ” strength “ if President Mohamed Bazoum, overthrown on July 26, was not reinstated within seven days.
General Tiani reiterated that it was mainly due to the deterioration of security in Niger plagued by jihadist violence that the military took power, saying: “it is the life of Nigeriens and Niger that is in question”.
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