Emmanuel Macron ordered the repatriation of the French contingent to Niger on September 24, 2023. Less than two weeks later, evacuation operations began.
The Ministry of the Armed Forces announced it in a press release published Thursday October 5: French soldiers are beginning their evacuation operations from Niger this week, ten years after their installation in the country. The army is thus following the instructions of the President of the Republic, launched on September 24.
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Around 1,500 men from the French armies are currently positioned in Niger, in three very distinct areas: on the air base adjoining the airport of Niamey, the capital, as well as on two areas in the north of the country, not far from the Malian border. .
The material will be moved later
A priori, it is the contingent from one of these two bases – around 400 men – which should take the road on Thursday to reach Niamey airport in a convoy and fly to France. The second contingent, deployed a little further north should follow immediately.
“Coordination with the Nigerien armies is essential to the success of this maneuver”, notes the ministry in its press release. At the same time, the junta also reacted by press release indicating that “the Nigerien government [sera] attentive to ensuring that this withdrawal takes place in compliance with our interests and according to our conditions.”
As much as the evacuation of men should be able to be done fairly quickly, by air, that of materials and machines should take more time; it will have to proceed by road, towards a port, probably that of Cotonou, in Benin. But the matter is not won: Tuesday November 3, one of the generals of the junta in power in Niamey indicated that the evacuation of the French contingent would not take place “not through Benin. Any direction except Benin”, he insisted. All French forces and their equipment should have left the country before the end of the year, i.e. within three months.
More attacks since the putsch
From a political or ideological point of view, it is a small victory for the military of the junta, who had made the departure of the French the cornerstone of their speeches. Especially since there remain European contingents in Niger, Italian or German, to support the Nigerien forces in their fight against armed jihadist groups. The Americans also maintain their drone base in Agadez, in the center of the country.
But it was the French contingent which was at the forefront and in effective support of the Nigerien armed forces in this fight. And since the end of this partnership following the coup d’état of July 26, the jihadists have increased their raids almost everywhere in the country. A good fifteen in total. In the past week alone, there have been four attacks, some of them major.
Last Sunday, two Nigerien military convoys, one of which had more than 40 vehicles, came under fire from ambushes probably set up by the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara. The day before, another ambush, also targeting the military, left more than 33 dead in the ranks of the Nigerien armed forces. Obviously, they no longer have the means to protect themselves against these attacks or to counter-attack.