The military leadership of Niger, which is a former French colony, has begun booting Western ambassadors from the country, starting with France. The French ambassador has been given 48 hours to leave.
While there were initial reports in AFP that the US and German ambassadors were also ordered to depart the country, this was quickly walked back as a premature report lacking verification. But given tensions, they could be next.
A US State Department spokesperson later said “no such request has been made to the US government”.
But since the July 26 coup d’état, ousted and still detained President Mohamed Bazoum has been accused of working with France to trigger outside military intervention towards restoring him to power.
French President Emmanuel Macron has been frequently critical of the junta, and demanded the immediately release of Bazoum, something repeated on Thursday.
On Friday the junta revealed that the French ambassador refused a meeting with Niger’s new foreign minister, with Paris having cited that Niger’s “putschists have no authority”. Niger then said the French government was acting “contrary to the interests of Niger” and therefore the ambassador must be expelled.