Things are getting even worse between Paris and Niamey. The soldiers who took power in Niger accused France on Wednesday of having freed jihadists and violated the country’s airspace, on the eve of an important summit on the crisis.
The leaders of the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), opposed to the coup, still give priority to diplomacy, while maintaining the threat of armed intervention. They are due to meet this Thursday at a summit in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, to assess the situation.
The junta continues the signs of defiance
On Tuesday, a joint delegation of ECOWAS, the African Union and the UN was unable to go to Niamey, its mission having been canceled by the military for “security” reasons, in the face of “anger” “populations”. The postponement of this visit adds to another sign of mistrust from the new Nigerien leaders: the appointment on Monday of a civilian Prime Minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, which seems to be the first step towards a transitional government.
Flying to Abuja on Wednesday evening, the President of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo said: “The only president we recognize (in Niger) is (the deposed President Mohamed) Bazoum”. “If you don’t want a government or a president, sanction it through the ballot box (…) Coups d’etat must be banned”, he added, considering that ECOWAS, whose country and Niger are part of it, had been playing its existence after the putschs in three other Member States (Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso) since 2020.
The United States also expressed their concern on Wednesday about the conditions of detention of President Bazoum, detained since the July 26 coup in his presidential residence. “We are seriously concerned for his health and safety and that of his family,” the department said, following a call between US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and Mohamed Bazoum. The Nigerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) of Mohamed Bazoum for its part claimed that he was sequestered without water or electricity and lived on reserves.
An “authorized” flight, according to Paris
The tension therefore continues to rise before the summit on Thursday. On Wednesday, the military regime thus accused France of having violated the Nigerien air space in the morning, closed since Sunday, with a French army plane from Chad, and of having “liberated terrorists”. Without making a direct link with this “liberation”, but in the same press release, the Nigerien regime announced that, on Wednesday morning, “the position of the national guard of Boukou”, in the zone of the three borders between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, “has been the subject of an attack” whose “assessment has not yet been established”.
Charges immediately denied by Paris. “The flight carried out this morning (Wednesday) was authorized and coordinated with the Nigerien army,” said a French government source. “And no terrorist has been released by French forces.”