2023-07-29 06:08:38
After the putsch which saw the head of the presidential guard seize power in NigerPresident Emmanuel Macron will chair, Saturday July 29 at 3:00 p.m., a National Defense and Security Council devoted to this country, the Elysée announced on Friday July 28.
The French leader, who is due to return from Oceania overnight from Friday to Saturday, has already condemned “in the strongest terms” the junta’s coup that toppled on Wednesday Mohamed Bazoum.
“This coup d’etat is perfectly illegitimate and deeply dangerous for Nigeriens, for Niger, and for the whole region”, underlined Emmanuel Macron. “This is why we call for the release of President Bazoum and the restoration of constitutional order,” he said from Papua New Guinea.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its part affirmed that France “does not recognize the authorities” resulting from the putsch led by General Abdourahamane Tiani.
Read alsoCoup in Niger: Bazoum tried to “gain autonomy” once morest his presidential guard
A coup justified by “the deterioration of the security situation”, according to General Tiani
General Tiani presented himself on public television on Friday as “president of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland”following a coup that he justified by “the deterioration of the security situation” in the country.
This discreet high-ranking officer has commanded the presidential guard since his appointment in 2011 by Issoufou Mahamadou, Mohamed Bazoum’s predecessor.
His speech came on the third day of the kidnapping of the deposed president in his private residence located inside the military camp of the Presidential Guard, whose commanders are among the putschists.
International convictions
After Paris, Washington reacted overnight from Friday to Saturday through the voice of its head of diplomacy, Antony Blinken, who assured Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum of the “unwavering support” of the United States during a call. phone, according to spokesman Matthew Sullivan.
Antony Blinken stressed that the coup put “hundreds of millions of dollars in aid at risk”, but that the United States would continue to work for the “full restoration of constitutional order and democratic governance in Nigeria”.
Read alsoWhat are the Western forces present in Niger?
On Sunday, “a special summit” of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to which Niger belongs, will be held in Abuja to assess the situation, with probable sanctions in the key.
Several African countries and the UN have also called for the release of Mohamed Bazoum. In Nairobi, the Kenyan President William Ruto considered that with this coup, “Africa suffered a serious setback in its democratic progress”.
L’European Union (EU), by the voice of the head of its diplomacy, Joseph Borrellthreatened on Friday to suspend “all budgetary support”.
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