France begins the evacuation of hundreds of European citizens from Niger after the coup

France will begin the evacuation of French and European citizens from Niger on Tuesday, as announced by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, days after a military junta seized power in the African country. Niger’s borders have been closed to commercial flights since the military overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum and his democratically elected government on Wednesday, in the seventh military coup in less than three years in West and Central Africa. “Taking into account the situation in Niamey (the capital), the violence against our Embassy the day before yesterday and the fact that the airspace is closed and our citizens cannot leave by their own means, France is preparing the evacuation of its citizens and European citizens who wish to leave the country,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “The evacuation will begin today,” he added. For their part, Italy and Spain are also preparing operations to evacuate the dozens of their citizens who are in Niger.

France has had troops in the Sahel for a decade to help fight the Islamist insurgency, but some Nigeriens are calling for the former colonial power to stop interfering in their affairs. On Sunday, junta supporters burned French flags and attacked the French Embassy in Niamey, prompting police to fire tear gas to disperse the protest.

According to the website of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2022 there were just under 1,200 French people in Niger. But the French media, including the daily the worldThey stated that at the moment there were only about 600 in the country, since many families with children are on vacation. The Foreign Office has declined to give an exact figure, but spoke of “several hundreds.” A flight left Paris in the direction of Niamey this Tuesday at noon.

Italy has also announced that a special flight will repatriate its nationals from the capital. “The Italian Government has decided to offer our fellow citizens in Niamey the possibility of leaving the city on a special flight to Italy”, published the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, on the social network X (formerly Twitter). In statements sent to Reuters through her office, Tajani said that the Italian Embassy will remain open and that the ambassador was returning to Niger from Rome, where she went last week to attend the UN summit on food systems. “Italy wants to continue its efforts of political and diplomatic mediation,” Tajani declared. Rome has stressed that its operation did not amount to launching a formal evacuation.

On the other hand, the Spanish Government is finalizing the evacuation of the more than 70 Spaniards residing in Niger, as confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The absence of commercial flights after the closure of the country’s airspace and the instability of the internal situation have led to opting for an evacuation, according to the same sources. For several days now, the Spanish Embassy in Niamey has made available to Spaniards residing in the country a telephone number and a contact email to organize the evacuation, while the Minister José Manuel Albares made an appeal on Monday to all fellow citizens who are in Niger to contact “immediately” with the diplomatic legation.

The United States, Germany and Italy have troops in Niger on counterinsurgency and training missions. So far no evacuation has been announced. For its part, the European Union has reported on Tuesday that it is offering voluntary evacuation to its staff at the diplomatic mission in Niger, although for the moment a large-scale operation is not being considered to remove all its representatives from Niamey.

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