The French ambassador to Niger, Sylvain Itté, left the capital, Niamey, on Wednesday September 27, before returning to France, according to ministerial and diplomatic sources from Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The ambassador and six collaborators left Niamey around 4 a.m.” on site, according to the diplomatic source. A departure confirmed by a source close to the Nigerien Ministry of the Interior, who specifies that the plane left in the direction of Chad.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, announced his repatriation on Sunday September 24, on TF1 and France 2, during an interview devoted to purchasing power. A decision which puts an end to two months of standoff with the military junta, led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, who seized power on July 26, in Niamey, the capital.
The Nigerien military regime ordered the expulsion of the French ambassador at the end of August. His diplomatic immunity and visa were withdrawn. Sylvain Itté and his team have since remained locked up in the French compound, risking expulsion if they leave and seeing their food and water reserves running out. Until now, not recognizing the military regime in place and not wanting to give in to the “injunctions” of the junta, Paris refused to recall its ambassador.
France continues to support ousted president Mohamed Bazoum
The repatriation of the ambassador also means that Paris is ending its “military cooperation with Niger”. At the beginning of August, a week after the junta took power, the generals denounced several military cooperation agreements with France, the former colonial power. One of these texts contained a month’s notice, and the regime claims that French soldiers deployed in Niger for the anti-jihadist fight are present “illegally” in the country. Demonstrations have since taken place regularly in the capital to demand their departure.
France continues, as the president repeated on the evening of Sunday September 24, to consider the overthrown president, Mohamed Bazoum, detained since the end of July with his wife and son at the presidential residence, as “the only legitimate authority ” from the country. But Paris, which was counting on an intervention from the Economic Community of West African States to restore Mr. Bazoum and constitutional order, had few options left to maintain itself in Niger.