France, Italy and Spain announced the evacuation of their citizens and other European nationals from Niger out of concern that they could be trapped in the coup, which drew support on Tuesday from three other West African nations that they are also governed by military juntas.
Around 600 French people want to leave the country, along with another 400 people of different nationalities, such as Belgians and Danes, French officials said. Most of the passengers on the first flight were French, and authorities hope to wrap up the evacuation flights on Wednesday.
Because Niger’s airspace is closed, France coordinated the evacuations with the regime that ousted the country’s president, but without withdrawing its support for democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum, diplomatic officials said.
The ministry cited the recent acts of violence against its embassy in Niamey, the capital of Niger, as one of the reasons for making the decision to offer evacuation flights to its citizens and citizens of other European countries. Spain’s Defense Ministry announced preparations to evacuate more than 70 Spaniards, while Italy also announced it was preparing a flight.
The evacuations come amid a deep crisis stemming from last week’s coup against Bazoum. His apparent ouster is a setback for Western nations that were collaborating with Niger in combating extremists in West Africa.
In Niamey hotels, Europeans and other foreigners were packing suitcases. At the airport, hundreds of people lined up for hours waiting for French evacuation flights to depart.
The Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, on Sunday announced economic and travel sanctions against Niger over the coup, saying it would use force if coup leaders did not reinstate Bazoum within a week.
For their part, the military governments of Mali and Burkina Faso stated in a joint statement that “any military intervention against Niger will be considered a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali.”
The two countries also called ECOWAS economic sanctions “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane” and refused to apply them.
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Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris, Ciarán Giles in Madrid, Cara Anna in Nairobi and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
