Staff Writer
France’s problems following the coup in Niger range from how to evacuate its citizens in the face of escalating security conditions to future French military strategy.
President Emmanuel Macron was gravely disappointed by the removal of President Mohamed Bazoum by his own guard at a time when France was trying to solidify Niamey as an ally in the wake of French military withdrawals from its neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso.
An Elysee source stated on Tuesday that Macron “remains very mobilized” and that he was speaking with regional and European allies “to look at different ways to get out of the crisis.”
Here, AFP examines the key issues facing France.
France is evacuating its citizens, but why?Three planes are already en route to Niger, according to a Tuesday announcement from the French foreign ministry, which is organizing evacuation flights for citizens.
The quick action followed violent protests on Sunday outside the French embassy. Paris also observed that its citizens were unable to exit the country on their own because the airspace had been closed to regular traffic.
France has also stated that it is ready to accept other citizens of Europe on the evacuation aircraft.
According to Florence Boyer, a researcher at France’s Research Institute for Development and a specialist on Niger, if regional group ECOWAS ratchets up sanctions, Niger risks being shut down for “very long time, for at least several months.”
“I believe that for security reasons, the European Union does not want to keep its citizens on Niger’s territory in the face of such an unknown and the potential for a country closure.”
Why is there anti-French sentiment in the Niger population?Following the coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, France is witnessing a painfully familiar scenario play out in the Sahel region: a putsch accompanied by a rise in anti-French sentiment.
Although these anti-French attitudes have been there for a while, they have recently spread widely among the Niger populace, especially in metropolitan areas.
In a nation where the illiteracy rate is still about 30%, France has come under fire for its inability to completely eradicate the threat posed by the Islamic State group’s militants.
In the ongoing war for influence in sub-Saharan Africa, which has seen Russia become more and more involved in recent years, Niger is frequently the subject of misinformation campaigns on social media.
After the French troop Barkhane left Mali in 2022, Bazoum made the decision to accept its soldiers despite opposition from some members of the populace.
Boyer stated that “the strongest argument (in Niger) is against the French military presence,” adding that the new type of military collaboration following the Mali evacuation has increased resentment.
She claimed that corruption, rigid social structures, and a strong culture of patronage made it difficult for Niger’s young people to find employment.
She claimed that because Paris had been such a strong backer of Bazoum, “this frustration crystallizes against France.”
What consequences will there be for France?Niger is now the third country in the area to experience a coup since 2020, following Mali and Burkina Faso, and the putsch presents France with a now uncomfortably familiar conundrum regarding what to do with its military presence there.
The quick withdrawal of soldiers was not planned, according to France’s chief of staff, but the future of military cooperation is still quite uncertain.
Since the country’s forces were compelled to leave Mali in the summer of 2022, Niger has served as a key base for French anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel, with 1,500 French troops stationed there.
After the coup, Boyer stated, “I do not see the point in maintaining a French military base” in Niger.
She continued: “I don’t really see how the European Union as a whole could maintain such large numbers as there are at present for military or police cooperation in the medium term.” She pointed out that other European nations also had a presence in Niger.
