A fifth French government plane landed at Niamey’s civilian airport on Wednesday evening to evacuate French and European nationals, the army general staff told AFP. “A 5th rotation has been triggered. The plane is landing in Niamey,” he said. It should be the very last flight to evacuate people wishing to leave the country, he said.
France decided on Tuesday to evacuate its nationals from Niger, justifying this decision by the attack on its embassy on Sunday and the closing of the borders which prevented its fellow citizens from traveling by air. Meanwhile, Niger’s land and air borders with five neighboring countries have been reopened. The staff also specified that the 4th plane had left Niamey and should land at Roissy around 1 a.m. local time.
While some French people have criticized the evacuation operation in the press, a diplomatic source told journalists: “some may not agree but more than 600 French people have expressed the wish to leave and we bring them our competition. Asked about a possible military intervention by the countries of ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, this source recalled that France wanted “a return to constitutional order because the coup attempt destabilizes Niger”.
General Abdourahamane Tiani, head of the military junta that took power in Niamey, said on Wednesday that the French “have no objective reason to leave Niger”. French nationals “have never been the object of the slightest threat,” General Tiani said in a televised speech on the eve of Independence Day in the country, a former French colony.
At the same time, the State Department raised its alert level for Niger from 3 to 4, advising any American national not to travel to the country due to the security situation there. He said he reduced activities at the US Embassy in Niamey and ceased all daily operations, stressing that they can only intervene in an emergency.
