In Niamey in Niger, the French stick together after the announcement of the closure of their embassy.
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In Niger, after the departure of the last French soldiers from the country on Friday, Paris decided to close its embassy in the capital. A rare measure, which comes after months of tensions with the junta in power, since the coup d’état at the end of July. The embassy cites “security reasons”, after violent demonstrations and a blockade by Nigerien security forces around the compound. But in Niamey, in the capital, the decision worries the French there.
In the garden of a hotel near the river, there are around thirty of them, a few expatriates who have been living in Niger for a long time and binational families: “It’s a little Christmas party so that the French people who are there know that we are here to help them. We’re here to support each other.”
Without a consulate, it is no longer possible to renew your identity document or obtain a civil status document. A headache for the vice-president of the Union of French Abroad: “I saw a Frenchman, his wife gave birth here. For the child to be of French nationality and he must make the declaration within two weeks… All these are problems. I have friends, their passports are finished so they are blocked. When Macron says ‘We never abandon a French person abroad’… he has just let us down.”
Feeling of abandonment, incomprehension
Another testimony, that of Alain Vollet, a retired teacher who has lived here for twelve years. No question for him to leave : “No, no, no, there is no reason for me to leave and I absolutely do not feel in danger in Niger. When I pass in the streets, everyone who knows me greets me with great pleasure. For me , it’s political, it’s not safe, it’s a hasty and brutal decision.”
Leave or stay? Hassia, a Franco-Nigerian mother, is especially worried about her two children. French schools still closed, they follow their lessons at home: “Well, we still hope that the links will continue and that the school will reopen. Otherwise, I think we will find other solutions: schools here or in another neighboring country. We ask ourselves the question, Shouldn’t we leave? ? To leave, you have to decide. But leaving because you are forced to leave, even if you do, you do it with a weight on your heart.” Because the diplomatic break between France and Niger is above all experienced as a heartbreak.
Niger: the concern of French expatriates – Report by Sophie Douce