As anti-French sentiment grows, France forced out of 4 African nations
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After Mali, CAR, Burkina Faso, and Niger, will French troops be kicked out from yet another African country it had formerly colonized?
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French soldiers of the 2e Regiment Etranger de Parachutistes (2eREP - 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment ) and Nigerien soldiers prepare for a mission on the French BAP air base, in Niamey, on May 14, 2023 (AFP)
After Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic, France is being forced to withdraw troops from yet another former African colony: Niger.
Faced with growing anti-French sentiment since a military takeover in Niger in July, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans to withdraw 1,500 troops, along with France's ambassador to Niamey.
The Republic of #Niger, led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani and supported by its people, declared the immediate suspension of uranium and gold exports to #France on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/7F6sNJRJS2
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) August 1, 2023
In August, the new Nigerien government issued an ultimatum for the French ambassador to depart within 48 hours.
In a statement, Niger's Minister of Foreign Affairs revealed that the decision to expel French Ambassador Sylvain Itte was prompted by a series of perceived provocations by the French government.
Notably, the refusal of the French ambassador to engage in a scheduled meeting with the minister and other actions that were deemed contrary to Niger's interests led to this drastic diplomatic measure.
The strained relationship traces back to suspicions that Paris has covert plans to intervene militarily in Niger to reinstate the ousted President Bazoum.
The pullout will be the fourth in under two years by the French, who still have bases in a handful of African countries.
France pulled out of Mali in 2022 after a bitter row with the country's military leadership. Relations soured following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 and growing hostility toward France from the Malian public, which accused French troops of failing to stop terrorists from pushing into the center of the country.
Some 1,600 French troops were deployed in recent years in the Central African Republic (CAF), under the pretext of helping keep the "peace" after a fierce bout of inter-communal bloodshed in 2013. But there too, French troops were forced to leave. The last troops from France's Operation Sangaris left in December 2022.
Paris accused the CAF of embarking on an anti-French campaign allegedly steered by Moscow.
In January 2023, the junta that had come to power in a coup in Burkina Faso in September 2022 -- the second coup in nine months -- gave the 400 French special forces stationed there a month to leave the country after Paris was accused by the West African country that it had failed its "anti-terrorism" mission.
Most recently, the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger signed a charter establishing an Alliance of Sahel States (AES) - the Liptako-Gourma Charter - to build a collective defense architecture and mutual collaboration aimed at benefiting the nations' peoples.
The charter signed on Saturday binds the signatories to assist one another -- including militarily -- in the event of an attack on any one of them.
It also binds the three countries to work to prevent or settle armed rebellions.
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