NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Foreign nationals lined up Wednesday morning outside an airport in the Niger capital to wait for a French military evacuation flight, as a regional bloc continued to talk about its response to the military coup which took place last week.
France, Italy and Spain announced the evacuation of their citizens and other Europeans in the capital, Niamey, following concerns that they could be trapped after soldiers detained President Mohamed Bazoum and seized power.
The Biden administration has yet to announce any decisions on the evacuation of US forces, diplomats, aid workers and other US citizens from Niger, a major US anti-terror base in the Sahel. However, some Americans have left with the help of the Europeans.
The first two flights from France evacuated more than 350 French citizens, as well as people from Niger and at least 10 other countries, the French Foreign Ministry said. The Paris airport authority said two more evacuation flights are scheduled to land on Wednesday afternoon.
Some 1,200 French citizens are registered with the French embassy, the foreign ministry said, and about half have asked to be evacuated.
An Italian military plane landed in Rome on Wednesday with 99 passengers, including 21 Americans and civilians from other countries, the Italian Defense Ministry said. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said: “In a way, we were authorized by the new government, which gave permission for the operation.”
Germany, which has encouraged its civilians in Niger to evacuate on French flights, said it currently sees no need to evacuate the 100 or so soldiers it has in the country, largely connected to the UN mission in neighboring Mali. .
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he spoke to the German commander at the Niamey airbase on Tuesday, “and he told me clearly that they are not at all concerned about their safety at the moment; they are in close contact with the Niger army; they are leaving accompanied by the army of Niger”. Supplies are also secured, he said.
US officials have remained committed to trying to roll back the takeover, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Niger’s president Tuesday night to express “constant and unwavering support.”
A US withdrawal from Niger would put Washington’s longstanding counterterrorism investments in the West African country at risk, including a major airbase in Agadez that is key to efforts against armed extremists in the Sahara and Sahel. The United States has approximately 1,000 forces in Niger and helps train some Nigerien forces.
Leaving Niger would also risk ceding the country to the influence of Russia and its Wagner mercenary group, which already have a significant presence in Mali, the Central African Republic and Sudan.
Before dawn Wednesday, hundreds of people lined up outside the Niamey airport terminal hoping to leave, after a French flight was canceled the night before. Some slept on the floor, while others watched TV or talked on the phone.
A passenger who did not want to be named for security reasons said he tried to shield his children from what was happening, telling them “just go home.”
The passenger said he feared retaliatory attacks against civilians if Niger’s regional neighbors follow through on their threats to intervene militarily.
Niamey has calmed down after protests in support of the junta turned violent on Sunday, but some say the mood is still tense.
During evacuation flights Tuesday at the airport, a passenger who did not want to be named for security reasons said Nigerien soldiers raised the middle finger at waiting evacuees as soldiers sped off after escorting an Italian military convoy to the airport.
On Sunday, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS said that use force against the board if he didn’t release and reinstate the president within a week. the ad was immediately rejected by neighboring Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, all led by mutinous soldiers They overthrew their governments.
The leaders of Mali and Burkina Faso said that a military intervention in Niger “would be tantamount to a declaration of war” against them.
Defense chiefs of the 15 ECOWAS members will meet in the Nigerian capital Abuja from Wednesday to Friday to discuss the next steps to resolve the crisis, the bloc said in a statement. An ECOWAS delegation led by a former Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, is ready to go to Niger once logistics have been arranged, an aide to the president said he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Speaking at a virtual United Nations meeting on Tuesday night, the UN special envoy for West Africa and the Sahel said non-military efforts are underway to restore democracy in Niger.
“A week can be more than enough if everyone speaks in good faith, if everyone wants to avoid bloodshed,” Leonardo Santos Simao said. But, he added, “different member states are preparing to use force if necessary.”
Others in the diplomatic community said that the use of force is a real option.
ECOWAS is determined to use military force after economic and travel sanctions failed to reverse other blows, said a Western diplomat in Niamey, who did not want to be named for security reasons.
The M62 Movement, an activist group that has organized pro-Russian and anti-French protests, called on Niamey residents to mobilize and blockade the airport until foreign military forces leave the country.
“Any evacuation of Europeans (should be) conditional on the immediate departure of foreign military forces,” Mahaman Sanoussi, the group’s national coordinator, said in a statement.
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Associated Press journalists Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria; Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington; John Leicester in Paris and Frances D’Emilio in Rome, Italy contributed to this report.
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