SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Niger’s partners fill void left after French exit

The diplomatic isolation of Niger's junta is easing as the West African country's partners start filling the void left by its former ruler France, whose last soldiers left on Friday.

Niger's partners fill void left after French exit
Supporters of Niger's National Council of Safeguard of the Homeland. Photo: AFP.

The international community, and above all Western countries, had unanimously condemned the July 26 military overthrow of elected president
Mohamed Bazoum.

The United States, the European Union and France suspended military cooperation and financial assistance, while the Economic Community of West African States regional bloc imposed heavy sanctions to encourage a return to civilian rule. 

Four months later, Bazoum is still holed up in the presidential palace and the new military leaders have yet to announce a timetable for elections. But ECOWAS has hinted at easing sanctions if the junta agrees to a “short transition.”

On Thursday, Benin President Patrice Talon said he wanted to “quickly” restore relations between the two countries. The United Nations General Assembly meanwhile on Monday accepted the accreditations of a new ambassador sent by Niamey.

Europeans divided

As Niger military leaders ordered French forces to depart, other Western countries have indicated they wish to keep a toehold in the country, above all to counter Russian influence in the region. 

The United States, which has an air base in the north, was the first to soften its position, saying Wednesday it is ready to resume military cooperation on the condition the junta commits to a short transition.

The last French soldiers board a French military plane to leave Niger. Photo: BOUREIMA HAMA/AFP.
 

European countries have started to break ranks with France, which closed its embassy and has refused to recognise the legitimacy of the military leaders.   

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said during a visit to Niamey that Berlin is “interested in a resumption of projects” with Niger’s military.

“France is disengaging from the Sahel, but afterwards we have to agree on some common European approach in this region, and not each man for himself,” said a European diplomat. According to another Western diplomat, the European Union is in an “untenable position”, with member states showing little hurry to agree on a
common policy.

“Out of seven member states who were present in Niger, six, with France being the exemption, want to return at all costs but are waddling in line,” while Nigerien military leaders “have played a clever game,” the diplomat said. 

Niger put pressure on European countries by ending two EU security and defence missions in the country and repealing a law that criminalised trafficking migrants to Europe.

“One should not see these openings as a capitulation to the military authorities,” said Fahiraman Rodrigue Kone, Sahel specialist at the Institute for Security Studies.

“But in a context of shifting strategic alliances in the Sahel, a certain pragmatism is replacing dogmatic stances,” Kone said. 

“Given their tensions with France, which has an important weight in European diplomacy, the strategy of the Nigerien authorities is to develop bilateral cooperation with certain European actors,” he said. 

Moscow’s spectre

European countries “face a dilemma,” said an Italian diplomat. “We have a responsability to stay, because the void would be immediately filled by the Russians.”   

A Russian delegation arrived in Niamey early December to reinforce military cooperation. Moscow is already the preferred ally of military regimes in Mali and Burkina Faso — two countries which formed an alliance with Niger in September and contemplate joining into a confederation.

Outside of military affairs, the “Russians cannot help solve all the challenges,” said ISS’s Kone.

An eventual resumption of European development assistance would be a big relief to the Niger regime, which has been forced to slash government spending by 40 percent.

But Niger can count on dividends from an oil pipeline built by China, which is due to be inaugurated in January and will allow the country to export crude oil for the first time, with some 90,000 barrels a day flowing towards Benin.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

SHOW COMMENTS