It is difficult to predict how the situation in Niger will develop after the military coup. As a precaution, Germany is therefore looking for alternatives for its airborne base in the capital Niamey. The situation at the base used in connection with the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from neighboring Mali is stable, said Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. But “just in case, we’re continuing to work on alternatives for the transfer back from Mali. But we hope that that won’t be necessary.”
The Bundeswehr operates an air transport base in Niamey, which is the central hub for the Bundeswehr in West Africa and is important for the ongoing withdrawal from neighboring Mali.
The Bundeswehr has flown around 30 people out of the West African country. An A400M transport aircraft left Niamey Airport on Thursday, the Bundeswehr wrote on Twitter in the evening. A spokesman for the Operations Command confirmed the information. The nationalities of the evacuees were initially unclear. In addition, it was not known whether they were civilians.
The federal government had initially refrained from its own evacuation flights. Around 60 Germans were brought to safety with French planes. The Foreign Ministry in Paris declared its own evacuation operation to be complete on Thursday.
In Niger, officers of the Presidential Guard arrested the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum last week and declared him ousted. The commander of the elite unit, General Abdourahamane Tiani, subsequently proclaimed himself the new ruler. Shortly after Tiani came to power, the putschists suspended the constitution and dissolved all constitutional institutions.
After military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020, Niger was the last of the three neighboring countries in the Sahel to be led by a democratically elected government.