{"id":17942,"date":"2023-09-26T00:14:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T21:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=17942"},"modified":"2023-09-26T00:14:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T21:14:54","slug":"france-to-withdraw-troops-from-niger-calls-back-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/france-to-withdraw-troops-from-niger-calls-back-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"France to withdraw troops from Niger, calls back ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron has announced a complete withdrawal of the French military from Niger by the end of 2023. He also said that France\u2019s ambassador to Niger, Sylvain Itte, would return from the mission.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a televised interview on September 24, 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron said France has decided to withdraw its ambassador from Niger. \u201cIn the next hours, our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France.\u201d In the same interview, Macron said that his administration has decided to withdraw the French forces that have been stationed in the northwestern African country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paris has been at odds with the military authorities of its former colony that took control of Niger after ousting President Mohamed Bazoum in a military coup. France had stationed its military contingents in the country to carry out anti-terrorism operations. France has some 1500 troops left in Niger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are putting an end to our military cooperation with the de facto authorities of Niger because they don\u2019t want to fight terrorism anymore,\u201d Macron said regarding the military leaders who took over rule of the northwest African country. When asked about the timeline of withdrawal, he said that said there will not be any French soldiers in Niger by the end of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey will come back in an orderly manner in the weeks and months to come, and for that, we will coordinate with the putschists because we want this to happen calmly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"French<\/a>
French soldiers next to a military cargo aircraft. (Image Credit: AA\/via Twitter)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Anti-French sentiment is on the rise in Niger following the military coup in July this year that Paris refused to recognize. French President Emmanuel Macron had been backing the country\u2019s deposed President Mohamed Bazoum and refused to recognize the new military leadership that took over the power on July 26. Earlier this month, tens of thousands of protestors gathered outside a French military post in Niger\u2019s capital Niamey, demanding a complete withdrawal of the former colonizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French Ambassador Sylvain Itte remained in the country despite being given a 48-hour deadline to leave the country soon after the military takeover. Initially, Macron said he \u201capplauds\u201d Itte\u2019s decision to stay in Niger despite the warnings, but now he has ordered the ambassador to come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Niger\u2019s military coup<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the country\u2019s military takeover which started on July 26, soldiers detained Niger\u2019s president Mohamed Bazoum and seized power while General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guards, named himself the leader of Niger. Allegedly backed by Russia, Niger\u2019s military takeover resonates with the same anti-Western and prominently anti-French sentiments seen in Mali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Niger<\/a>
Thousands of protestors gathered in Niger demanding French forces’ withdrawal from the country. (Image Credit: AFP\/Twitter)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Niger has gone through four successful military coups since its independence from France with the latest one being the fifth instalment. Bazoum\u2019s inauguration in 2021 marked the first democratic transition of power since France\u2019s colonial rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Political turmoil in West and Central Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political unrest has taken over Africa\u2019s francophone countries. The oil-rich country of Gabon became the eighth African country to undergo a military takeover in a span of three years. Unlike Niger and other countries from the Sahel region, Gabon lies further south on the Atlantic coast. The country is relatively more stable in terms of security situation and has not been subjected to Islamic radicalism as much as its northern neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wave of military coups has also created more difficulties for France, which is one of the major stakeholders in the region being the former colonizer. France has about 350 troops in Gabon. Its forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso after coups there in the last two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron has announced a complete withdrawal of the French military from Niger by the end of 2023. He also said that France\u2019s ambassador to Niger, Sylvain Itte, would return from the mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,62,1],"tags":[355,75,363,208,357,64,5,156,113,291],"class_list":["post-17942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-europe","category-news","tag-africa","tag-conflict","tag-coup","tag-diplomacy","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-military","tag-niger","tag-security","tag-violence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Niger-anti-France-protest.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-4Fo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17942"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17948,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942\/revisions\/17948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}