Niger leader says France wants to ‘destabilise’ country

Niamey, Niger – AFP

The head of Niger’s military-run government on Saturday accused France of wanting to “destabilise” the country — seven months after driving out French soldiers.

Since seizing power on July 26 last year, the new government led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, former head of the presidential guard, has reset its international partnerships.

It asked former colonial power France late last year to withdraw its troops stationed in the Sahel nation.

“This sick desire to destabilise Niger has spread through the repositioning of all the agents of the French DGSE (intelligence services) that we chased out of our territory,” he said Saturday in a two-hour interview on Niger public television to mark the 64th anniversary of the country’s independence.

“They have been repositioned in Nigeria and Benin,” he said, referring to “groups of subversive agents dressed in civilian clothes” and “with elements of the Beninese armed forces themselves dressed in civilian clothes”.

Niger regularly accuses neighbouring Benin of harbouring “French bases”, which Beninese authorities and France deny.

Benin took a hard line in the heavy sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States after the coup.

Despite the lifting of sanctions in February, Niamey has refused to reopen its border with Benin.

“The day we know that there is no threat from Benin, we will take the appropriate measures” to reopen the border, Tiani said.

While Niger is at odds with Benin, it has forged closer ties with neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali, two countries also governed by military regimes that came to power in coups.

Gathered within the confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States, the three countries could soon benefit from Niger’s oil, Tiani said.