President Emmanuel Macron will chair a Defense and National Security Council devoted to Niger on Saturday at 3 p.m., after the putsch which saw the head of the presidential guard take power, the Elysée announced on Friday.
France, which ended the anti-terrorist operation Barkhane and withdrew from Mali under pressure from the Bamako junta, currently has 1,500 soldiers deployed in Niger who have so far operated with the Nigerien army. The country, a former French colony which became independent in 1960, is one of the last allies of Paris in the Sahel.
Emmanuel Macron, who is due to return from Oceania overnight from Friday to Saturday, has already condemned “in the strongest terms” the junta’s coup that overthrew Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday.
“This coup is perfectly illegitimate and deeply dangerous for Nigeriens, for Niger, and for the whole region,” Macron said. “That is why we call for the release of President Bazoum and the restoration of constitutional order,” he said from Papua New Guinea.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its part affirmed that France “does not recognize the authorities” resulting from the putsch led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani.
General Tchiani presented himself on public television on Friday as “president of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland”, after a coup d’etat which he justified by “the deterioration of the security situation” in the country.
After Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger becomes the third country in the Sahel, plagued by attacks from groups linked to the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, to experience a coup since 2020.
The country is also renowned for its large uranium deposits, in particular exploited by the French mining group Orano (ex-Areva) which employs 900 employees on site, mainly local staff, divided between Niamey and Arlit.