Several hundred people demonstrated peacefully on Sunday in the streets of the Nigerien capital Niamey, in particular to protest against the French anti-jihadist force Barkhane while incensing Russia, noted an AFP journalist. To cries of “Barchan outside», «Down with France», «Long live Putin and Russia“, the demonstrators criss-crossed a few streets of the capital before holding a rally in front of the headquarters of the National Assembly.
Some demonstrators displayed Russian flags and held up signs hostile to France and Barkhane. “Release the criminal French army” Where “the Barkhane colonial army must leavecould be read on some signs in this demonstration authorized by the municipal authorities of Niamey. Some 3,000 French soldiers are still deployed in the Sahel – and in particular in Niger, one of Paris’ main allies – after their total withdrawal from Mali.
France accused ofactive support» to jihadists
In April, Nigerien deputies had largely voted in favor of a text authorizing the deployment of foreign forces on the territory, in particular French, to fight the jihadists. “There are anti-French slogans because we demand the immediate departure of the Barkhane force in Niger which is alienating our sovereignty and which is destabilizing the Sahel“, told AFP Seydou Abdoulaye, the coordinator of the M62 Movement which is organizing the demonstration.
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Dressed in a T-shirt bearing the image of the revolutionary ex-president of Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara, he accused the former colonial power of a “active support” to “jihadists who spread terrorism from Mali», neighbor of Niger and Burkina Faso. Sunday’s demonstration also aimed to protest against the cost of living in Niger, where a recent increase in diesel prices quickly had repercussions on the prices of certain foodstuffs.
Niger has to deal with regular and deadly attacks by jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Sahel in the West and, in the South-East, by those of Boko Haram and the Islamic State group in West Africa. the West (Iswap). The country has been home for years to several foreign military bases, French and American in particular, dedicated to the fight against jihadists in the Sahel.