Global Courant
PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday that France will end its military presence in Niger and withdraw its ambassador from the country after the democratically elected president was ousted in a coup.
The announcement, if predicted, is a significant blow to French policy in Africa, after French troops withdrew from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in recent years following coups there. France had stationed thousands of troops in the Sahel region to fight jihadist groups at the request of African leaders.
France has kept some 1,500 troops in Niger since the July coup and has repeatedly rejected an order from the new junta for its ambassador to leave, saying France did not recognize the coup leaders as legitimate.
Tensions between France and Niger, a former French colony, have increased in recent weeks, with Macron recently saying diplomats were surviving on military rations while sheltering in the embassy.
Ali Sekou Ramadan, an aide to ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, told The Associated Press that Bazoum asked Macron to withdraw the French ambassador, Sylvain Itte, “to reduce tension.”
In an interview with the France-2 television channel, Macron said he spoke on Sunday to depose Bazoum, telling him that “France has decided to bring back its ambassador, and in the coming hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France.”
He added: “And we will end our military cooperation with the Nigerien authorities because they no longer want to fight against terrorism.”
He said troops would be withdrawn gradually, probably by the end of the year, in consultation with the coup leaders, “because we want it to take place peacefully.”
He said France’s military presence was in response to a request from the Nigerien government at the time. However, military cooperation between France and Niger had been suspended since the coup. The junta leaders claimed that Bazoum’s government was not doing enough to protect the country from the uprising.
The junta is now under sanctions from Western and regional African powers.
Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who is assisting Niger’s new military rulers with their communications, said they would continue to monitor developments until the French ambassador leaves the country. He also demanded a clear deadline for the withdrawal of French troops.
“This announcement by the French President heralds the victory of the people of Niger. However, we are going to accept it with many reservations, because I no longer believe in Mr Macron,” Saidou said.
The junta gave the French ambassador 48 hours to leave in August. After the deadline passed without France recalling him, the coup leaders subsequently revoked his diplomatic immunity.
In New York on Friday, the military government that seized power in Niger accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of “obstructing” the West African country’s full participation in the U.N.’s annual meeting of world leaders to avoid France and appease his allies.
Experts say that after repeated military interventions in the former colonies in recent decades, France’s era as Africa’s ‘gendarme’ could finally be over, as the continent’s priorities shift.
Andrew Lebovich, a researcher at the Clingendael Institute, a think tank, said the decision both marks an acceptance of a “harsh reality for France in the region and may impose some limits on the US commitment in Niger, although as we have seen the US and France have not followed exactly the same positions in Niger.”
Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank, said Niger will feel the loss of French support in its fight against violent extremist organizations.
“France has been a reliable partner providing support to its operations and Niger simply has no alternative to this gap being filled by the French, at least in the short and medium term,” Lyammouri said.
Macron withdrew French troops from Mali last year after tensions with the ruling junta following a 2020 coup, and more recently from Burkina Faso for similar reasons. Both African countries had asked the French troops to leave.
France also suspended military operations with the Central African Republic, accusing the government of failing to stop a “massive” anti-French disinformation campaign.
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Associated Press writers Sam Mednick in Toronto, Dalatou Mamane in Niamey, Niger and Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria contributed to this report.
