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France announced a diplomatic withdrawal and the end of its military cooperation with Niger, two months after a coup removed a pro-French president and widened the gulf between the two countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that Paris would pull out its ambassador, several diplomats and 1,500 troops from the West African country following a coup on July 26 that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
The French withdrawal is the third of its kind in the region recently: Since 2022, French peacekeepers have had to leave Mali and Burkina Faso after putschists took over. France is a former colonial power in all three countries and had deployed 4,000 troops across West Africa, the largest number of soldiers of any single foreign partner.
Amid a wave of West African coups, France faces a reckoning
The deployments over nearly a decade have focused on fighting extremist threats and insurgent groups that have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. On Sunday, Macron said the post-coup authorities “no longer wanted to fight against terrorism.”
The withdrawal comes at a time when France’s footing in West Africa is threatened by a growing Russian, Chinese and Turkish presence. In January, Burkina Faso told France to end army operations there after Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla dubbed Russia a “reasonable” choice for a partner in the jihadist-hit country’s fight against extremism.
Anti-French sentiment in the former colonized countries paved the way for this exit from West Africa. In Mali, anti-French signs were waved regularly at demonstrations. Civil groups have accused the foreign troops of worsening the security situation. Juntas capitalized on the anti-imperialist resentment.
In a statement broadcast on national television, Niger’s military rulers said they “celebrate a new step toward the sovereignty of Niger” and dubbed the withdrawal “a historic moment, which speaks to the determination and will of the Nigerien people.”
The exit from Niger, a centerpiece in Paris’s anti-terrorist activities, is an especially hard blow for France, whose counterinsurgency operations in the Sahel region are likely to weaken. Macro had relied on Niger as an ally with a growing role following the collapse of relations with Mali.
France’s drawdown in West Africa fuels local extremists’ hope for a Taliban-style victory
Macron said troops would be withdrawing in the coming weeks and months, with a full pullout set by the end of the year. Although he does not recognize the putschists as the legitimate authority, Macron said in an interview with French television that Paris would be coordinating with the coup leaders to ensure an orderly exit, adding that France refused to “be held hostage by the putschists.”
On Saturday, the Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar said Niger’s military rulers have banned French aircraft from flying through the country’s airspace. The agency said Niger’s airspace is “open to all national and international commercial flights except for French aircraft or aircraft chartered by France including those of the airline Air France,” Agence France-Presse reported.
The statement stipulated that all flights, including military and other special flights, are banned from Niger’s airspace without prior authorization, AFP reported. It is unclear how this will affect the departure of the ambassador and other French diplomats.