2023-10-02 11:49:32
“The Nigerien people” will “dictate” the “future relations with France”, declared the head of the military regime resulting from a coup d’état in Niger, a week following the announcement by Emmanuel Macron of the departure of the French ambassador and the tricolor troops of this Sahelian country.
“The Nigerien people will now dictate the form of future relations with France,” said General Abdourahamane Tiani on Saturday evening in two interviews in local languages, one in Djerma, the other in Hausa, on national television, Tele Sahel.
These remarks were made a week following the announcement by the French president of the departure of the ambassador to Niamey, Sylvain Itté, who returned to Paris on Wednesday, and that “by the end of the year” of some 1,500 soldiers what France has in Niger, as part of the anti-jihadist fight.
The Nigerien regime had ordered the expulsion of the diplomat and denounced military cooperation agreements with Paris, repeating that it wanted the withdrawal of French troops.
“We are preparing for their departure,” General Tiani said.
The military regime has been engaged in a standoff with France since the July 26 coup which overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum, an ally of the former colonial power. This does not recognize the new authorities of Niger.
“As they (the French) were there to fight terrorism and they unilaterally stopped all cooperation (…) their stay in Niger has come to an end,” declared Abdourahamane Tiani.
“They said they had come to help eradicate terrorism. Not only did they not chase away the terrorists but the terrorists are more and more numerous,” he lamented.
The country is undermined in the west and southeast by recurring jihadist attacks, perpetrated by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
For his part, the French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu estimated on Friday that “the Sahel risks collapsing on itself”, following the departure of French soldiers from Mali and Burkina Faso – also led by soldiers – and soon from Niger.
“We were a solution for the security of the Sahel,” he insisted.
General Tiani once once more justified the coup by jihadist attacks.
The “country was in danger of disappearing one day, so we decided to take measures since the people (in power under Bazoum) were not listening to their military advisors” he declared.
France, moreover, “is not the only country with which we have cultural relations”, he added, in reaction to the suspension of the issuance of visas by Paris from Niger, Burkina Faso and The Mali.
“We do not have the right to spend five years in power, you have to be elected for that,” he also assured Saturday evening, a few weeks following announcing a transition of three years maximum.
According to Mr. Tiani “the problem is not democracy, sometimes it is elected figures who twist the texts to do as they please.”
He also justified the coup by “the squandering of public funds” by the former leaders.
On this subject, the regime announced the creation of an anti-corruption commission.
Mr. Tiani recalled the establishment of a “national dialogue” to write new texts governing Nigerien political life.
Since the coup, Niger has been the subject of political and economic sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has threatened the country with armed intervention.
According to General Tiani, this organization “did not even try” to “know the reasons” for the coup d’état. He deplores that “the populations are suffering from the embargo”.
Criticized by Western and African countries, the Nigerien regime has found new allies, Mali and Burkina.
Mr. Tiani recalled having created a defense cooperation with them, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), specifying that “an economic agreement will come next”.
Mr. Bazoum, sequestered since the coup d’état in his presidential residence, and to whom Emmanuel Macron has reaffirmed his support, appealed to the ECOWAS Court of Justice for his release.
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