(Niamey) The military regime that came to power through a coup d’état at the end of July, affirmed Thursday evening that the deposed president Mohamed Bazoum, held prisoner since the putsch, tried in vain “to escape”, and that several people were arrested.
Thursday, “around 3 a.m.” (10 p.m. Eastern time), “deposed president Mohamed Bazoum accompanied by his family, his two cooks, and two security elements attempted to escape from his place of detention,” regime spokesperson Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane said on national television.
He specified that this attempt had “failed” and that “the main perpetrators and some of their accomplices” had been arrested. An investigation was also opened.
According to Mr. Abdramane, Mohamed Bazoum’s escape plan aimed to first take him “to a hideout on the outskirts of Niamey”, before borrowing “helicopters belonging to a foreign power”, without specifying which one, in direction of Nigeria.
Denouncing Mr. Bazoum’s “irresponsible attitude”, he did not specify where the deposed president was on Thursday evening.
On Thursday, the first French soldiers to have left their bases in Niger – a requirement of the regime which maintains execrable relations with Paris – arrived by road in N’Djamena, capital of neighboring Chad.
Departing from Niamey, the convoy left Niger “in safety and in coordination with the Nigerien forces”, Colonel Pierre Gaudillière, spokesperson for the French general staff, told AFP on Thursday.
He “arrived safely” in N’Djamena after ten days of travel.
Air rotations from Chad to France will be organized “in the coming days,” added the spokesperson.
Chad before Cameroon?
Driven out of Niger, the French army must evacuate men and equipment mainly by land to Chad and then probably Cameroon, before their repatriation to France. A route of more than 3000 km, part of which crosses hostile zones where jihadist groups are active in places.
The Chadian army indicated that it would escort the convoys to the Cameroonian border.
N’Djamena is home to the command of French operations in the Sahel with around a thousand French soldiers.
According to Colonel Gaudillière, half of the sites of the forward bases in Ouallam and Ayorou (north-west Niger), in the so-called “three borders” zone with Burkina Faso and Mali, have been emptied.
The French presence in the Sahel has continued to decline since 2020. Successive coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and finally Niger have put an end to the anti-jihadist force Barkhane deployed since 2014 in Mali, which numbered up to 5,500 soldiers. deployed in the area.
Barkhane has crystallized the anti-French feeling of part of African public opinion, raising the risk of demonstrations along the convoys.
France has supported deposed President Mohamed Bazoum since the July 26 coup and is calling for his release like many countries and organizations. But the military regime remains inflexible for the moment.
Mr. Bazoum still refuses to resign and is held prisoner in his residence within the presidential palace with his wife Haziza and his son Salem.
On September 18, he took legal action in West Africa to request his release and the restoration of constitutional order in Niger.
The country has also been hit by international economic sanctions since the coup and many states have suspended their budgetary aid.
On Thursday, the European Union, which itself suspended its aid, announced the establishment of a “humanitarian airlift” transporting “essential medicines and medical supplies” to Niamey.
Four flights will be chartered to transport 58 tonnes of “essential health supplies” with a view to “strengthening the humanitarian response” in this country, where “stocks of vital products are rapidly running out”.
A first flight has already arrived in the Nigerien capital, specifies the EU.