Just returned from Oceania, Emmanuel Macron will look into the Nigerian file, announced the Elysée, Friday July 28. The Head of State will chair a Defense and National Security Council devoted to Niger, Saturday at 3 p.m., detailed the presidency. This meeting comes after the putsch which saw the head of the presidential guard take power after overthrowing the elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, on Wednesday.
Emmanuel Macron had already condemned “with the greatest firmness” the coup d’etat of the junta, in this allied country of the West, considered as a privileged partner of Paris in the Sahel, region ravaged by jihadist violence. France thus has 1,500 soldiers in Niger. “This coup d’etat is perfectly illegitimate and deeply dangerous for Nigeriens, for Niger, and for the entire region.“, noted the French president Friday during a press conference, earlier in the day, from Papua New Guinea.
“A historic period for France which is ending”
The coup in Niamey is the third in this area since 2020, after the arrival of soldiers in power in Mali and Burkina Faso. However, the putschists who took power in these two neighbors of Niger forced France to leave their territory and have since turned to other partners, notably Russia. Moscow, through the intermediary of the Wagner militia, deployed there intense anti-French and Western propaganda.
“Little by little, a historic period for France is ending, a post-colonial period of military presence”, pointed out to BlazeTrends the journalist specializing in Africa, Antoine Glaser. “From Mauritania to Sudan, the jihadists have succeeded in scaring away all Westerners.”