APA – Niamey (Niger) – After a tug-of-war lasting several weeks, the French ambassador has finally left Niger.
This marks the end of a two-month stand-off between Paris and Niamey. As announced by Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, Sylvain Itté left Niger on Wednesday 27 September to return to France.
The French ambassador, who has been persona non grata since the military came to power at the end of July, left Niamey on Wednesday morning under escort from French and Nigerien forces, according to several media sources.
The French diplomat had been ordered to leave the Sahelian country since 25 August. Faced with Paris’s failure to recognise the junta, Mr Itté had refused to accept an invitation from the Niger Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a meeting.
General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the junta, used this as a pretext to ask him to leave Niger within 48 hours, denouncing in a press release the “actions of the French government contrary to the interests” of their country.
France had initially refused to comply with the injunctions of the junta, which was considered “illegitimate” by President Macron and his regime.
At the end of the ultimatum, the Niger putschists withdrew Sylvain Itte’s diplomatic immunity and visa. Since then, he has been living holed up in the French embassy closely guarded by Nigerien soldiers.
In this situation of virtual blockade, Emmanuel Macron considered that the ambassador was being held “hostage” by the Niger junta by preventing the French diplomatic representation from being supplied with food. However, Paris continued to maintain that it was keeping Sylvain Itte in his post.
Against all expectations, the French President indicated in a televised interview last Sunday that the diplomat would be returning to Paris “within the next few hours”.
A U-turn that sounds like a diplomatic victory for the junta that overthrew democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum on 26 July, until then France’s main ally in a Sahel region where “anti-French sentiment” continues to grow.
ODL/ac/fss/as/APA