president Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that France’s envoy to Niger lives like a hostage in the French embassy and accused military leaders of blocking food deliveries to the mission.
The ambassador is living on “military rations,” Macron told reporters in the eastern town of Semur-en-Auxois. “As we speak, we have an ambassador and diplomatic staff who are literally being held hostage in the French embassy,” he said.
“They are preventing the delivery of food,” he added, apparently referring to Niger’s new military rulers. “He eats military rations.”
Nigerian military leaders told the French ambassador Sylvain Itte who had to leave the country after the president was overthrown Mohamed Bazoum on July 26th.
But In August he was given a 48-hour ultimatum to leave the countrys, and the French government refused to comply and recognize the legitimacy of the military regime.
He The coup was condemned by France and most of Niger’s neighboring countries.
Macron explained that the diplomat “He cannot go out, he is persona non grata and he is denied food.”
Asked whether France would consider bringing him home, Macron said: “I will do what we agree with President Bazoum because he is the legitimate authority and I talk to him every day.”
France maintains around 1,500 soldiers in Nigerand said earlier this month that a reshuffle could only be negotiated with Bazoum.
The country’s new leaders have broken military cooperation agreements with France and called for troops to withdraw quickly.
Macron has been rejecting the request to recall the French ambassador for weeksa position supported by the EU, which has described the demand as a “provocation”.
Like France, the EU foreign policy spokesman said last month: Nabila MasraliThe EU “does not recognize” the authorities that have taken power in Niger.
The impoverished sub-Sahelian Sahel region has seen what Macron called an “epidemic” of coups in recent years, with elected governments replaced by military regimes Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea as well as Niger.