The allies of the deposed president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, do not lose hope that he will be restored to power. Without expressly mentioning the coup plotters, yesterday Joe Biden demanded the immediate release of Bazoum and his family, and "the preservation of the hard-won democracy in Niger", according to a statement issued in Washington.
The official statement by the President of the United States came on the occasion of the national holiday in Niger, which became independent from France 63 years ago today. Biden recalled that the Sahel country "faces a serious challenge to its democracy" and that Washington supports the return to "a civilian-led government". "The Nigerian people have the right to choose their leaders - added Biden -. They expressed their will through free and fair elections, and this must be respected."
Pressure from the United States and many other countries, including some of Niger's powerful neighbors, did not deter thousands of supporters of the military junta from demonstrating peacefully in Niamey in what has become a ritual in the region. of Africa where coups have succeeded: shouts and banners against France, flags and slogans in favor of Russia. Those gathered expressed protest at the sanctions decreed against Niger, especially those of the Economic Community of West African States (CEDAO), an organization that has also threatened armed intervention. Just yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Senegal, Aïssata Tall Sall, said that the country will get involved with soldiers if ECOWAS decides on a military operation to return Bazoum to office.
On Wednesday night, the coup leader and self-proclaimed head of state, General Abdourahamane Tiani, former head of Bazoum's presidential guard, again rejected sanctions and foreign interference. In a tone between solemn and grandiloquent, the Nigerien strongman evoked the possibility that, if the ECOWAS threat materializes, Niger will launch "the great final battle that we will fight together for the true independence of our nation". Tiani considered the mass evacuation of foreign citizens unnecessary and disproportionate, because their safety was never in danger and there were no threats.
Neither France nor other countries trusted, however, the fate of their nationals in Niger, so repatriation was quickly organized before the situation worsened. In total, 1,079 people were evacuated in the five military flights organized from Paris. A little more than half were French; the rest, of many other nationalities, also Spanish.
The events of the last few days are generating an avalanche of analysis and comments in France whose common denominator is the feeling that French policy in the Sahel has reached a point of no return, that the failure of the strategy of the last ten years is palpable . Even in the event that Bazoum returns to power, Paris should reconsider what it is doing and the withdrawal of its troops from the country would be advisable due to the lack of guarantees.
It is an outcome that has only half surprised those who closely follow the reality of the Sahel. But the images of civilians queuing at the airport to board military planes to Paris have contributed to giving an image of a certain humiliation, of defection. The next step, not yet confirmed, will be the withdrawal of the 1,500 soldiers who are still there.
France will still have other bases in Africa, in Chad, Djibouti, Senegal, the Ivory Coast and Gabon, but, for geographical and logistical reasons, the loss of Niger - after the abandoned bases in Mali and Burkina Faso – will be what was missing for the French anti-jihadist effort in the Sahel, a serious setback with unpredictable consequences.
