Getting out of the impasse in Niger, without recognizing the de facto authorities and in a climate of growing hostility, is what Paris is trying to do. After five weeks of arm wrestling with the perpetrators of the July 26 coup, France has finally begun discussions on the redeployment of part of its forces engaged in this Sahelian country. After initially refusing to comply with the injunctions of the Nigerien soldiers, who made the departure of French soldiers their political fuel, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and several corroborating sources admitted, on Tuesday September 5, to the World, be in discussion on the terms of the “withdrawal of certain military elements”.
At the beginning of August, the junta had given France a month to withdraw from Nigerien territory, after denouncing the military cooperation agreements which had hitherto linked Paris and Niamey. On Saturday September 2, on the eve of the expiry of the ultimatum set by the putschists, thousands of Nigeriens favorable to the junta again demonstrated against the presence of French soldiers, a few steps from the base they occupy in Niamey with other foreign detachments.
In practice, since the coup, the French and Nigerien military had already suspended all forms of joint operations against jihadist groups. All military assets, including air (drones, helicopters, fighter planes, etc.) were therefore immobilized. “It is normal to discuss it [du retrait français], insofar as counter-terrorism cooperation is interrupted”justified, Tuesday, a source within the executive.
“Exchanges of coordination (…) exist locally between soldiers to facilitate the movement of French military resources immobilized since the suspension of anti-terrorist cooperation”, for his part modestly admitted, on Tuesday, the entourage of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu. A minimal recognition while the Prime Minister of the junta, Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, had declared the day before in a press conference that “exchanges are in progress” to allow a rapid withdrawal of the French armed forces.
Redeployment or repatriation?
If the principle of a withdrawal therefore seems accepted, neither the number of soldiers concerned nor the terms of this departure have been officially recorded. Currently, some 1,500 French soldiers are still deployed in the country on three bases shared with other foreign detachments, including Americans: in Niamey, Ouallam, north of the capital, and Ayorou, near the border with Mali. .
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