Passengers are seen outside the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey
NIAMEY, Aug 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The first of three flights to evacuate French and European citizens from Niger lifted off Tuesday evening, six days after a coup toppled one of the last pro-Western leaders in the militant-plagued Sahel.
“There are 262 people on board the plane, an Airbus A330, including a dozen babies,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.
“Nearly all the passengers are compatriots” along with “some European nationals”.
Colonna said the flight would land at Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport during the night.
In the region’s third military takeover in as many years, Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by his own guard, sounding alarm bells in France, Niger’s former colonial master and traditional ally.
After hostile crowds gathered on Sunday outside the French embassy and Niger accused France of plotting to intervene militarily, Paris said Tuesday it would withdraw citizens and offered to evacuate other Europeans as well.
Paris blamed the “violence that took place against our embassy”, and the risk of “closure of the airspace that would leave our compatriots without the possibility to leave”.
Two Airbus A330s as well as a third plane left southern France during the day heading for Niamey’s civilian airport, the French army said.
The initiative marks the first time that France has staged a large-scale evacuation in its former colonies in the Sahel, where there have been coups in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020.
However, the army chief of staff announced that a military pullout of France’s 1,500 troops from Niger was “not on the agenda”.
In Berlin, the foreign ministry urged “all German nationals” to take up the French evacuation offer. It said that fewer than 100 German civilians were believed to be in Niger.
In Washington, the White House said the United States was not joining European allies in evacuating citizens for now, citing a lack of immediate danger.
About 1,100 US troops are deployed in Niger.
The French foreign ministry said about 600 French nationals were in Niger.
Around a hundred of them carrying only light luggage had gathered Tuesday afternoon at Niamey’s Diori Hamani international airport, where Nigerien police and about 20 French soldiers were deployed.
The French embassy said the evacuation was being staged “in coordination Nigerien forces”.
The West African bloc ECOWAS on Sunday slapped sanctions on Niger and warned it may use force as it gave the coup leaders a week to reinstate Bazoum.
The following day, the junta accused France of seeking to “intervene militarily”, a charge which drew a French denial, while junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso warned any military intervention in Niger would be a “declaration of war” against them.
Guards chief General Abdourahamane Tiani has declared himself leader – but his claim has been rejected internationally, from ECOWAS, the African Union and the UN to France, the United States and the European Union. — NNN-AGENCIES
