Frédéric Michel // Photo credit: Handout / General Staff of the Armed Forces / AFP
A week after the coup that shook Niger, the vast majority of French people wishing to leave the country were evacuated. A fifth and last plane has been chartered to repatriate the last people on the evacuation list. A successful operation, thanks to the coordination of the actors in this period of crisis.
The Quai d’Orsay played it safe. Several hundred French people, but also foreign nationals, have been repatriated from Niger in recent hours, a week after the coup in the country. And to allow all those who wanted to leave to return to Europe, a fifth plane was again sent to Niamey on Wednesday evening.
A “very good coordination” between the actors
This is expected to be the very last chartered flight for these evacuations. In total, more than 600 French people wanted to leave. Several dozen nationals of various countries in Europe and North America are also part of the list of returnees. An operation whose organization, despite the urgency, was effective, according to Colonel Pierre Gaudillière, spokesman for the General Staff of the armies.
“We can already talk about responsiveness within really tight deadlines. We should also note the very good coordination of all the actors, and in particular between the armies and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs”, he underlines at the microphone from Europe 1.
Independence Day
This Wednesday, in a televised speech, the head of the military junta now in power in Niamey said that the French had no objective reason to leave the country. For General Tiani, who took power thanks to the coup, French nationals have never been the object of the slightest threat.
Ironically, the evacuation of French nationals is taking place as Niger celebrates its independence from France on Thursday, officially proclaimed on August 3, 1960.