A month after the coup in Niger, the Foreign Ministry asked the French ambassador to leave the country. The former colonial power had demanded that President Bazoum be reinstated.
In Niger, the junta has asked the French ambassador to leave the country. The diplomat Sylvain Itté should leave the country within 48 hours, the Nigerien Foreign Ministry wrote in a letter dated Friday, which was available to the AP news agency.
Itté ignored an invitation to the State Department, the ministry wrote. In addition, the French government is acting against Niger’s interests. The former colonial power had called for the reinstatement of President Mohamed Bazoum after the July 26 coup.
Paris responded to the request on Friday evening. “Only legitimate elected Nigerien authorities” have a say in the fate of the ambassador.
False media reports about more ambassadors
Initially, there were also media reports that the German and American ambassadors were to be expelled from Niger. However, these have apparently been proven wrong. The AFP news agency removed previously published reports on the grounds that the information it had had not been declared authentic by the authorities. The US State Department also said that pictures of letters circulating on the Internet asking American diplomatic personnel to leave the country were not genuine, according to the Nigerien State Department.
The Presidential Guard in Niger deposed President-elect Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and later declared its commander Abdourahamane Tiani as the new ruler.
Junta asks Mali and Burkina Faso for help
This week the junta asked for military support from two neighboring countries. Tiani signed two decrees “authorizing the security forces of Burkina Faso and Mali to intervene in the event of aggression on Nigerien territory,” the junta announced late Thursday. The states ruled by military regimes had previously threatened that any use of force by the West African community of states ECOWAS against the Nigerien junta would be treated as an act of war against their own nations.
ECOWAS and Western countries are demanding Bazoum be reinstated. The putschists ignored this and mobilized thousands of supporters for rallies against ECOWAS and the former colonial power France, which has around 1,500 soldiers stationed in Niger.
Until the coup, Western countries regarded Niger as one of the last partners in the Sahel region south of the Sahara with which a fight against extremists was possible.