1y ago

France to start Niger evacuations, ‘special’ Italian flight too

www.scmp.com France to start Niger evacuations, ‘special’ Italian flight too

French government also offers to help other Europeans to leave days after pro-Western president toppled, amid military-ruled neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso voicing support for coup leaders.

France will begin evacuating its nationals from Niger on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said, after a coup there last week toppled the country’s pro-Western leader.

The decision to move citizens out was prompted by attacks on the French embassy in the capital Niamey, and the closure of Niger’s airspace which made regular departures impossible, the ministry said in a statement.

France had earlier on Tuesday said that it was preparing an evacuation “in the face of a deteriorating security situation in Niamey” but gave no time frame.

The foreign ministry said France was offering to evacuate other European nationals wanting to leave.

Italy also said on Tuesday it would offer a special flight to repatriate its nationals from Niamey.

“The Italian government has decided to offer our fellow nationals present in Niamey the possibility to leave the city with a special flight for Italy,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani tweeted.

The ministry said it was “not an evacuation” but “a special flight for those who want to leave the country”.

Niger President Mohamed Bazoum, 63, was detained by his own presidential guard in a third coup in as many years in the Sahel, following putsches in neighbouring fellow former French colonies Mali and Burkina Faso.

Former colonial power France and the United States have between them deployed 2,600 soldiers in Niger to battle jihadists.

19 comments

Watching France lose control of its remaining colonial holdings while the French population simultaneously cause chaos at home is a pleasure I did not expect to get until at least 2030.
- I don’t find pleasure in the success of jihadist movements that overthrow democratic elections. I think the world would be better off with less religious extremists exerting control over people. It’s like celebrating the creation of North Korea because western powers lost influence over the area. Doesn’t make the inevitable oppression any more tolerable.
  
  Calling one of France's last remaining colonies democratic is absolutely absurd. Do you also argue that Batista was democratically elected?
  I thought it was a bit of a joke that many westerners are still supporters of colonialism but it's apparently true. That or there is really no understanding of history here. Niger was literally still a colony of France, unlike many other African nations that managed to break free of colonial dominance with the help of the soviets through the 60s-80s it did not. France is the last remaining operator of colonies around the world.
- While I don't endorse colonialism, I'm not quite sure they'll get it better with Russia.
  
  You either have to believe the new state is becoming a colony of Russia(it obviously isn't), or accept that its improved from the colonial arrangement and that's what makes it attractive to make deals with Russia.
  Russia gets plenty out of it without doing anything colonial. The export deals France had were basically stripping the country of all of its wealth, Uranium and Gold in particular, which Niger are nationalising.
  Russia will certainly get some beneficial deals out of their help offered but don't have to make themselves as bad as France to come out on top of this, and in fact simply the act of weakening France and by extension the rest of the western bloc is a win for them by itself. I don't see Russia as anywhere near as good as the Soviets were but the Soviet strategy was basically "liberate african countries entirely in order to weaken the west who are the colonial holders of these countries". The history of soviet liberation of africa is also the primary reason many in africa still hold a lot of positivity to Russia, even though the two are not remotely comparable.
- You have to be delusional if you think that a military coup orchestrated by Russia benefits anyone but a few corrupt elites. Your kneejerk reaction is nothing but cutting of your nose to spite your face. The French are certainly no saints but between military dictators, jihadist terrorists and Russian warlords they are one of the better actors in the region. If you unironically call the current state a French colony you must be lost deep in the Russian propaganda rabbit hole.

19 comments