The military rulers who seized control in Niamey on July 26 have given the French ambassador 48 hours to leave Niger, the country’s minister of foreign affairs said in a statement Friday, AFP reports. Faced with “the refusal of the French ambassador in Niamey to respond to an invitation” from the minister for a meeting…
Troops of the Economic Community of West African States have pledged readiness to deploy its standby force that could restore civil rule in Niger Republic should diplomatic efforts to reverse the coup there fail. All member states except those under military rule and Cape Verde pledged to participate in the standby force at a meeting…
Russia has warned that military intervention in Niger would lead to a “protracted confrontation” after regional bloc Ecowas said it would assemble a standby force. Such an intervention would destabilise the Sahel region as a whole, the Russian foreign ministry said. Russia does not formally back the coup, BBC News reported. But the US, which…
The new leadership of Niger has ended the country’s military cooperation with its former colonial ruler France, a spokesman for the junta said. France has more than 1,000 soldiers stationed in the Western African country who are tasked with fighting Islamist militias in the Sahel belt that stretches across the continent. Earlier, the Foreign Ministry…
