France has chosen to pull its ambassador and troops out of the Niger Republic because it has been unable to reach an agreement with the coup plotters for several weeks.
On Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron made this decision public. He said that France would quickly recall its ambassador from Niger and would later withdraw its military contingent, ending a two-month standoff with the Niger military junta.
In an interview on French TV, Mr. Macron explained the decision to pull the ambassador, saying, “France has decided to pull its ambassador.” Our ambassador and a number of other officials will be going back to France in the next few hours.
According to the website for the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA), Niger’s military leaders recently made it illegal for “French aircraft” to enter the country’s area. This made things even worse between the two countries. It was still not clear if this would affect the French ambassador’s safe exit.
Mr. Macron also made it clear that France and Niger would no longer be working together militarily. He said that French troops would be slowly leaving over the next few months, with a full departure “by the end of the year.”
In the coming weeks and months, Mr. Macron said, “We will talk with the putschists because we want this to be done peacefully.”
As part of its fight against jihadists in the Sahel, France keeps about 1,500 troops in Niger. Mr. Macron said that Niger’s new leaders had made it clear they didn’t want to keep fighting terrorism, which stopped France from pulling its troops out as planned.
When Niger’s military leaders told French ambassador Sylvain Itte to leave the country after ousting Mr. Bazoum on July 26, international tensions rose. But when he was given 48 hours to leave in August, the French government did not follow through. They also refused to accept the military regime as legitimate.
Earlier this month, Mr. Macron said that the ambassador and his staff were “hostages” in the mission and were only getting military meals and not getting food delivered. During this time, he kept saying that France still believed Mr. Bazoum was the “sole legitimate authority” in Niger and that the coup was aimed at him because he was trying to make changes in a brave way and for political reasons.
The coup against Mr. Bazoum was the third major change of its kind in West Africa in the past few years. In 2021 and 2022, similar events happened in Mali and Burkina Faso, which also caused French troops to leave those countries.
The coup in Niger made it much harder for Mr. Macron to build a special relationship with Niamey and use it as a hub for France’s presence in the area. The fact that the US has a sizable troop presence in the country makes the situation even more challenging.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had said they would use armed force to put Mr. Bazoum back in charge, and France strongly backed this position.