Niger: France embarks on evacuating its nationals

France has begun today Tuesday, August 1, evacuating European nationals residing in Niamey, Niger.

The evacuation follows a recent call by Paris to Europeans who wish to leave to signal for their immediate evacuation. A total of 850 people are expected to be evacuated.

This decision follows “acts of violence”, perpetrated against the French embassy and the “closure of airspace”, preventing the French from “leaving the country by their own means”.

The press release was made public by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

In the same vein, Germany equally decided to evacuate its nationals.

Yesterday Monday, the National Committee for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland, CNSP accused France of seeking “ways and means to intervene militarily in Niger”.

According to the junta, France held a meeting at the headquarters of the National Guard to obtain the “necessary political and military authorizations” to release detained President Mohamed Bazoum.

To the putschists, these authorizations were granted in documents signed by the interim Prime Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou and by Colonel-Major Midou Guirey, commander of the National Guard.

In response, Mali and Burkina Faso have invited the “competent forces to be ready and mobilized in order to lend a hand to the people of Niger in these dark times of pan-Africanism” in the event of military intervention in Niger.

Burkina Faso and Mali are tougher and affirm that “any military intervention against Niger would amount to a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali” not without threatening to leave ECOWAS and adopt “measures of self-defense in support of the armed forces of the people of Niger”.