In Niger, the military regime accuses Paris of having violated the closure of airspace and “liberated terrorists”

Niger’s military coup regime on Wednesday (August 9th) accused France of violating the closure of Niger’s airspace and “liberating terrorists”, which it says constitutes “a real plan to destabilize our country”. Paris immediately denied.

“French forces took off” on Wednesday from N’Djamena, Chad, “a military plane” at “6:01 a.m. local time” (7:01 a.m. Paris time), says a statement from the National Council for the Safeguard of Peace. homeland (CNSP) which took power in Niger, adding: “This aircraft voluntarily cut off all contact with air traffic control at the entrance to our space from 6:39 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. local time”. In the same press release, the CNSP accuses Paris of having “unilaterally released terrorist prisoners”, referring to armed jihadists.

After their release, these jihadists participated in “a planning meeting” for an attack “on military positions in the three-border area” between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, in western Niger, adds the CNSP . Without making a direct link with this “release” of jihadist prisoners, he announced in the same press release that, on Wednesday morning, “the position of the Boukou National Guard”, in the three-border area, “was the subject of ‘an attack’, the toll of which has not yet been established.

The flight was “authorized and coordinated with the Nigerien army”

“We are witnessing a real plan to destabilize our country,” says the CNSP, whose goal is to “discredit” it and “create a break with the people who support it, to create a feeling of generalized insecurity.” Consequently, the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) are asked to “raise their level of alert throughout the territory” and “the people to remain mobilized and vigilant”.

“The flight carried out this morning [Wednesday] was authorized and coordinated with the Nigerien army,” a French government source told Agence France-Presse. “And no terrorists have been released by French forces,” added the same source. Since the coup, France has suspended military cooperation agreements with Niamey. The military in power in Niamey last week denounced these agreements on the grounds that they had been signed by the legitimate Nigerien authorities. The French army is present in Niger with 1,500 soldiers as part of the anti-jihadist fight.

In an interview with AFP on Saturday, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, recalled that the French soldiers were present at the request “of the legitimate authorities of Niger”. He had also ensured that all operations were under Nigerien command, with Nigerien forces. “This putsch weakens this fight against terrorism in a Sahelian zone where armed terrorist groups are experiencing a resurgence of activity,” he also said.

These accusations against the former colonial power in the region, particularly targeted since the July 26 coup, come on the eve of a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Nigeria. This organization, considered “in the pay” of France by the soldiers who took power in Niamey, threatened them with armed intervention in the event of a failure of diplomacy in order to restore to office the ousted Nigerien President, Mohamed Boom.