In a press conference from New York, where she is attending the United Nations General Assembly, France’s Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs stated that Ambassador Sylvain Itté “is doing well.” According to Catherine Colonna, “His situation is not the most pleasant in the world, and it is not justified.”
France will keep its ambassador in place, who is being held by the military coup leaders in Niger, and rejects the pressure from the de facto government to recall him, said Catherine Colonna, France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, in New York on Monday. Ambassador Sylvain Itté and several French diplomats “are literally being held hostage in the French embassy,” denounced President Emmanuel Macron last Friday, adding that they are only allowed to eat military rations.
On September 18, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, reaffirmed Paris’s unchanged position during a press conference in New York, where she is attending the United Nations General Assembly.
“Our ambassador [to Niger] is doing well, I reiterate that he is safe, that his situation is not the most pleasant in the world, and it is not justified,” Catherine Colonna said. She continued, “A decision will not be made based on an injunction,” and that France “does not have to recognize the decisions of a power that has no legitimacy.” She added, “Our ambassador was accredited by the legitimate authorities of Niger, so (…) he will remain in his post as long as we wish.”
The head of diplomacy also noted that “the entire known international community,” including “the African Union, ECOWAS, Europe, and the United States,” has “condemned this attempted military coup and called for the restoration of constitutional order.” “As for us, our only stance has been to recall: condemnation, demand for release, return to constitutional order, and support for the efforts of the regional countries,” she explained, reiterating France’s support for the “positions taken by ECOWAS.” Catherine Colonna, speaking at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, thus reiterated France’s position since the beginning of the coup in Niger.
