France is preparing to evacuate its nationals to Niger. A plane took off from Paris on Tuesday August 1 at midday and is en route to Niamey airport to evacuate the first French people from the capital.
France will send unarmed military planes to evacuate French and Europeans – on a voluntary basis – wishing to leave the country after last week’s putsch. These planes have a capacity of more than 200 passengers.
This operation will be carried out thanks to “the means of the French armies”, an operation “coordinated by the Quai d’Orsay with its various partners”, assured this Tuesday morning at franceinfo French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that some 600 French people are currently in Niger but it has not communicated on the number of them wishing to be evacuated. A large number of French people usually residing in the country are also currently on vacation, outside the country.
While Niger previously served mainly as a transit base for operations in Mali, the country now hosts the heart of the French military system, on the projected air base (BAP) of Niamey, where five Reaper drones are permanently deployed and at the least three Mirage fighter jets.
France is preparing on Tuesday August 1 to start evacuating its nationals to Niger during the day.
© / LAURENCE SAUBADU / AFP
Italy has also announced that it is ready to evacuate by specially chartered plane its nationals from Niamey, some 90 people out of a total of just under 500 Italians in Niger, most of whom are soldiers.
Airspace closure
The Quai d’Orsay announced this morning that France had decided to evacuate its nationals from Niger on Tuesday, “given the situation in Niamey”. He justified this decision by the “violence which took place against our embassy the day before yesterday and the closure of the airspace which leaves our compatriots without the possibility of leaving the country by their own means”.
Several French people told AFP that they did not want to leave Niger for the time being. “For now, I’m staying!” Said one of them in a message, anonymously because he was kept silent by the humanitarian organization for which he works.
Others, on a one-off mission in Niger, are already packing their bags. Many permanent resident nationals in Niger are also outside the territory, especially those with children, during this school holiday period.
Niger’s coup led by General Abdourahamane Tiani overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum last week. General Tiani justified this putsch by “the deterioration of the security situation” in a country undermined by the violence of jihadist groups.
Thousands of pro-coup demonstrators then gathered on Sunday outside the French embassy in Niamey, capital of Niger, before being dispersed by tear gas canisters. France, a former colonial power in the region and an unfailing supporter of President Bazoum, appears to be the privileged target of the soldiers who overthrew him.