France’s Ministry of foreign affairs said on Tuesday, that it will evacuate its citizens from Niger Republic, just days after a military coup overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum.
President Bazoum’s ousting last week Wednesday, the seventh military takeover in less than three years in West and Central Africa has sent shockwaves across the region, pitting Niger’s former Western allies against the likes of Russia and other military leaders in the region.
Former colonial power France has had troops in the region for a decade helping to fight an terrorist groups, but some locals say they want the former colonial ruler to stop meddling in their national affairs.
On Sunday, supporters of the coupists burned French flags and attacked the French embassy in Niger’s capital, Niamey, prompting police to fire tear gas in response.
“Evacuation is being prepared. It will happen very soon,” the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told BFM TV late on Monday that the demonstrations in front of the embassy and the ensuing allegations that France shot at the crowd, which it denies “have all the usual ingredients of destabilisation, the Russian-African way”.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, last week welcomed the coup in Niger, and said his forces were available to restore order.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the situation in Niger was “cause for serious concern” and called for a swift return to constitutional order.
There are about 1,200 French nationals in Niger in 2022, according to the French foreign ministry website.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra posted on social medai, that the Dutch embassy in Niamey “is following the situation closely and is in contact with about 25 Dutch people known to the Foreign Ministry”.
The coup has raised fears for the security of the Sahel region. Niger is the world’s seventh-biggest producer of uranium, the radioactive metal widely used for nuclear energy and treating cancer.
In response, regional bloc ECOWAS has imposed sanctions, including a halt in all financial transactions and a national assets freeze, and said it could authorise force to reinstate Bazoum, who is still locked in his palace.
However, the military leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea all voiced their support for the Niger coup leaders on Monday.