Niger regime grills France for backing ousted Bazoum

Niamey, Niger – AFP

Niger’s military regime strongly condemned France on Friday for “blatant interference” by backing the country’s ousted president as protestors rallied near a French base outside the capital Niamey.

President Mohamed Bazoum, a French ally whose election in 2021 had created hopes of stability in the troubled country, was detained on July 26 by members of his guard.

Relations with France, the country’s former colonial power, went swiftly downhill after Paris stood by the widely unpopular Bazoum.

Comments by French President Emmanuel Macron in support of Bazoum “constitute further blatant interference in Niger’s domestic affairs,” regime spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane said in a statement read on nationwide TV.

The Sahel state is also embroiled in a standoff with the West African bloc ECOWAS, which has threatened to intervene militarily if diplomatic pressure to return the elected Bazoum to office fails.

On Monday, Macron said, “I call on all the states in the region to adopt a responsible policy.”

France, he said, “supports (ECOWAS’) diplomatic action and, when it so decides, (its) military” action, he said, describing this as “a partnership approach.”

Bazoum ‘courage’ 

On Friday, Macron again paid tribute to Bazoum, praising his “commitment, action and courage”.

He dismissed Niger’s rulers as having “no legitimacy” and insisted France would make its decisions with regard to Niger “on the basis of exchanges with President Bazoum”.

Abdramane said, “Mr. Macron’s comments and his unceasing efforts in favour of an invasion of Niger aim at perpetuating a neo-colonial operation against the Nigerien people, who ask for nothing more than to decide its own destiny for itself.”

Abdramane said Niger’s “differences” with France “do not touch on the relationship between our peoples, or on individuals, but on the relevance of the French military presence in Niger.”

France has been deeply engaged in the region ostensibly to fight radical groups, but has been criticized for pursuing its own interests, exploiting resources and supporting corrupt politicians who serve Western interests.

On August 3, the regime denounced military agreements with France, a move that Paris has ignored on the grounds of legitimacy.

Protest 

France has around 1,500 troops in Niger, many of them stationed at an airbase near the capital, who are deployed to fight an insurgency by radical groups which call for the end of Western intervention and influence in the region.

Thousands of people on Friday gathered outside the base to demand the troops leave.

The three-day “sit-in” has been organised by the M62, a coalition of civil groups opposed to the French military presence in Niger.

“France must leave and she will leave, because Niger is not her home,” said an M62 leader, Falma Taya.

A week earlier, the regime gave French ambassador Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country.

France has refused the demand, saying that the military rulers had no legal authority to force him out.

French military spokesman Colonel Pierre Gaudilliere Thursday warned that “the French military forces are ready to respond to any upturn in tension that could harm French diplomatic and military premises in Niger”.