The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland formed by the insurgent Nigeriens has demanded that France withdraw its troops from Niger by September 3rd, according to Sky News Arabia.
According to their information, the spokesperson for the Council reiterated that France had been given 30 days to effect this withdrawal, and this deadline would expire on September 3rd. The Nigerien population is increasingly unhappy with the presence of French military personnel in the country, the channel adds. It has reported calls to cut off French military personnel stationed at their base in Niamey from access to food, water, and electricity in order to force them to leave the country.
Earlier on Wednesday, Al-Hadath channel indicated that the insurgents had announced the suspension of the agreement regarding the French military presence on Nigerien territory.
On July 26th, a group of Nigerien presidential guard soldiers mutinied and announced the removal of President Mohamed Bazoum. The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland, led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, was formed to govern the country.
The EU will provide all necessary support to ECOWAS actions regarding Niger The European Union will provide all necessary assistance to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its actions regarding Niger and has already begun to develop sanctions against the country. This was stated by the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, during a press conference held after an informal meeting of EU defense ministers in the Spanish city of Toledo.
“The ministers supported an African solution to African problems. We will support ECOWAS. It must take the initiative and make decisions to counter the coup,” said Mr. Borrell. “We will support all the sanctions it has adopted and we are also working on the development of our own autonomous sanctions regime to take concrete measures against the coup plotters. This work has already begun and foreign ministers will continue it tomorrow. We will support all ECOWAS requests when we see their specific content,” emphasized the EU’s chief diplomat.
“I would like to clarify that we will examine any request, but only when we receive all the details. We need a lot of details to start acting, but we are ready to consider any request,” Mr. Borrell stressed, refusing to provide details about the potential actions of the EU and ECOWAS.
The diplomat confirmed that the EU had planned to launch a training mission to train Nigerien soldiers, but it had not been launched due to the military coup. He added that a similar situation had occurred in Gabon, where there had also been a military coup, and therefore the EU would need to reevaluate its plans for creating military missions for African states.
According to Mr. Borrell, the support for ECOWAS actions regarding Niger as well as the situation in Gabon will be discussed by EU foreign ministers in Toledo on Thursday.”
