France will withdraw nearly 1,500 troops from the West African nation of Niger by the end of the year, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, a decision that could upend the West’s security footprint in the region, including the future of 1,100 American forces based in Niger.
In an interview on French television, Mr. Macron also said that the country’s ambassador to Niger would leave “within the next hours.” He added, “And we are ending our military cooperation with the de facto authorities in Niger, because they no longer want to fight terrorism.”
The short announcement comes after weeks of escalating tensions between France and the new military leaders in Niger, who seized power in a coup in July. It also caps years of waning influence for France, a former colonizer in West Africa whose economic presence and military clout in the region remains considerable despite being increasingly challenged by juntas and foreign powers like Russia.
The new authorities in Niger, known as the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, called the decision on Sunday a “historical moment” for the nation.
“Imperialistic and neocolonialist forces are not welcome anymore on our territory,” they said in a statement.
Mr. Macron had refused to heed calls by Niger’s new leaders to recall troops and his ambassador, a position that most analysts and even French and European diplomats based in West Africa said had become untenable.
“We’re not here to take part in political affairs, to be hostages, in a way, of the putschists,” Mr. Macron said in an interview with the TF1 and France 2 television channels. He added that France would coordinate with the authorities in Niger to ensure French troops depart in an “orderly manner” over the coming months.
Niger’s military leaders had not responded as of Sunday night.
For weeks, tens of thousands of protesters in Niger’s capital, Niamey, have regularly demonstrated in front of the base hosting French military forces. At a recent protest attended by a New York Times reporter, demonstrators trampled on a French flag, carried a coffin they said was meant for Mr. Macron and brandished signs reading, “Death to France.”
After the coup that ousted the civilian president, Mohamed Bazoum, Western countries suspended their aid and security partnerships with Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, whose leader was seen as one of the last reliable allies in a region now dominated by men in uniform.
As Western countries have recalled troops training Nigerien soldiers in recent weeks, the future of Western involvement in the Sahel region — the world’s epicenter of jihadist activity — remains uncertain.
Niger is a key transit country in the migration route to Europe, and in recent years the European Union has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into buffering its northern areas with transit centers and repatriation flights.
France’s withdrawal could herald a shift for the United…
2023-09-24 18:04:08
Post from www.nytimes.com
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