Niger junta accuses France of planning military intervention
DOUALA, Cameroon (AA): France has received authorization from certain Nigerien authorities to intervene militarily to free Niger’s president, who was detained last week as part of a putsch led by his presidential guard, the junta said in a statement issued Monday.
“In keeping with its policy of seeking ways and means to intervene militarily in Niger, France, with the complicity of certain Nigeriens, held a meeting with the Niger National Guard General Staff to obtain the necessary military authorizations,” said junta spokesman Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane.
Hassoumi Massaoudou, the interim prime minister of the West African country, has given his consent for France to carry out strikes on the presidential palace with a view to freeing Mohamed Bazoum, according to the junta.
It also said that French security services violated a group of people who had come out to protest outside the French embassy in the capital Niamey on Sunday against France’s presence in the country following a march in support of the putsch.
The French intervention left six people injured, according to Abdramane.
France denied the junta’s accusations, saying “no lethal means were used by the French security forces” against the demonstrators, whom “the Nigerian security forces did not fully succeed in subduing.”
France also denied any planning of a military intervention in Niger.
“It’s wrong,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told the BFM news channel. She said it is “possible” to restore Bazoum in his functions and that this is “necessary, because these destabilizations are perilous for Niger and its neighbors.”
Niger’s military rulers also accused France of violating their border closure decision by landing an A401-type military aircraft at Niamey International Airport on Thursday.
Anti-French demonstrations are not unheard of in Africa, particularly in West Africa, where Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso are also in transition following military coups. In these former French colonies, anti-French sentiment is growing and palpable. Mali and Burkina Faso have officially terminated their military agreements with their former colonial power for fighting terrorism.
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