France has said it will immediately begin evacuating its citizens and other Europeans from Niger, days after a junta toppled the president, Mohamed Bazoum, and seized power in the west African country.

Tensions between Niger and the former colonial power, France, have escalated after the coup on 26 July overthrew one of the last pro-western leaders in Africa’s Sahel region, which has faced jihadist insurgencies.

France’s decision to swiftly evacuate its citizens from Niger goes further than its reaction to putsches in recent years in neighbouring former French colonies Mali and Burkina Faso, where French people were not evacuated after military coups.

The Italian government also said it would arrange a special flight to repatriate its nationals from Niger.

The French foreign office said: “Given the situation in Niamey, and the violence that took place against our embassy [on Sunday] and the closing of airspace that leaves our citizens without any possibility of leaving the country by their own means, France is preparing to evacuate those of its citizens and European citizens who want to leave the country. The evacuation will begin today.”

It added the evacuations would take place within “a limited time span”.

French people were told the evacuation would be coordinated with Niger, that it would be quick, and that people should prepare their ID documents, a minimum of small luggage, and water and food for the wait for departure. There are believed to be about 500 to 600 French nationals in Niger, fewer than the usual number of about 1,000 because many left earlier this month for school holidays.

Antonio Tajani, the foreign minister of Italy, which has about 90 nationals in Niamey and 500 in the wider country, said: “The Italian government has decided to offer our fellow nationals present in Niamey the possibility to leave the city with a special flight for Italy.”

Tajani said the embassy in the capital, Niamey, would “remain open and operative, in particular to contribute to the mediation efforts under way”.

On Sunday, supporters of the junta burned French flags and attacked the French embassy in Niamey.

An EU spokesperson said the bloc had not instigated any evacuation programme but was supporting any member states that were removing staff from its military support and civilian programmes on a voluntary basis.

Bazoum has been detained by his own presidential guard, the latest in several coups in the Sahel, in recent years, includingthose in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The juntas leading Mali and Burkina Faso warned that any military intervention in Niger to restore Bazoum would be considered a “declaration of war” against their two countries.

They said the “disastrous consequences of a military intervention in Niger … could destabilise the entire region”.

Niger’s junta on Monday accused France of seeking to intervene militarily to reinstate Bazoum, which the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, denied. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday vowed “immediate and uncompromising” action if French citizens or interests were attacked, after thousands had rallied outside the French embassy in Niamey.

Bazoum’s PNDS party has warned that Niger risks becoming a “dictatorial and totalitarian regime” after a series of arrests.

Since the coup, the junta has arrested the country’s oil, mining, interior and transport ministers; the head of the PNDS’s executive committee; and a former defence minister, according to the party.

The EU condemned the arrest of ministers from the ousted government and demanded they be freed immediately.

At an emergency summit on Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) demanded that Bazoum be reinstated within a week, or it would take “all measures” to restore constitutional order. “Such measures may include the use of force,” it said in a particularly strong statement.

Niger, with a population of 26 million, frequently ranks at the bottom of the UN’s human development index benchmark of prosperity. The country, which became independent from France in 1960, is a landlocked state, and strict economic sanctions against it could affect many supplies, including electricity.

The coup, according to the putschists, was a response to “the degradation of the security situation” linked to the jihadist conflict, as well as corruption and economic difficulties.

As Niger struggles with two jihadist campaigns – one in the south-west, which swept in from Mali in 2015, and the other in the south-east, involving jihadists from north-eastern Nigeria – the coup has shone a spotlight on France’s reduced and contested military presence in the Sahel region of Africa after 10 years fighting jihadist insurgencies.

The coup is a serious threat to French strategy in the Sahel, after several military coups in other countries had already forced France to rethink its decade-long military presence and anti-jihadist mission.

France first deployed troops against jihadists in Mali in 2013 under the Socialist president François Hollande, but in the past three years several military coups in the region, as well as a continued jihadist presence, have exposed the limitations of the military strategy and forced France to scale back its presence and focus its efforts in Niger, with Bazoum as a firm ally. It has 1,500 troops in the country and an airbase near Niamey.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/01/niger-coup-france-evacuate-european-citizens