French troops have started leaving Niger more than two months after soldiers toppled the African country’s president, the military said on Wednesday.
More than 100 personnel left in two flights from the capital, Niamey, on Tuesday in the first of what would be several rounds of departures by the end of the year, French military spokesman Colonel Pierre Gaudilliere said.
All of them are returning to France, Gaudilliere said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Niger’s state television broadcast images of a convoy leaving a base in Ouallam in the north, saying it was bound for Chad.
The departure comes weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would end its military presence in Niger and pull its ambassador out of the country as a result of the coup that removed Mohamed Bazoum as president in late July.
About 1,500 French troops have been operating in Niger, training its military and conducting joint operations.
Also on Tuesday, the junta gave the UN resident coordinator in Niger, Louise Aubin, 72 hours to leave the country, the Nigerien Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The junta cited “underhanded maneuvers” by the UN secretary-general to prevent its full participation in last month’s General Assembly in New York as one of the reasons.
The military rulers had wanted former Nigerien ambassador to the UN Bakary Yaou Sangare, who was made foreign minister after the coup, to speak on its behalf at the General Assembly.
However, Bakary did not receive credentials to attend after the deposed Nigerien government’s foreign minister sent the world body a letter “informing of the end of functions of Mr Bakary as permanent representative of Niger to the United Nations,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The junta’s decision to order Aubin out would disrupt the UN’s work in helping Nigeriens, more than 4 million of whom are in need of humanitarian assistance, and is contrary to the legal framework applicable to the UN, Dujarric said.
“Ms Aubin has been exemplary in leading the United Nations system in Niger to work impartially, and tirelessly to deliver humanitarian and development assistance,” he said.
Since seizing power, Niger’s military leaders have leveraged sentiment against France among the population and said the withdrawal signals a new step towards its sovereignty.
The US has formally declared that the ousting of Bazoum was a coup, suspending hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, as well as military assistance and training.
Niger was seen by many in the West as the last country in Africa’s Sahel region that could be partnered with to resist an insurgency linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
French troops have already been ousted by military regimes in Mali and Burkina Faso, which are seeing a surge in attacks.
Analysts warn that France’s withdrawal would leave a security vacuum that could be exploited.
“French forces might not have defeated these groups, but at least disrupted and limited their activities, said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan-based think tank.
With the French out of the picture, these would likely “expand to areas where French forces were providing support to Nigerien forces, especially on the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso,” Lyammouri said.
Violence has already spiked since the coup. In the month after the junta seized power, violence soared by more than 40 percent, data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project showed.
Jihadi attacks targeting civilians quadrupled in August compared with the month before, and attacks against security forces spiked in the Tillaberi region, killing at least 40 soldiers, the data showed.
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