{"id":9064,"date":"2023-09-11T10:52:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T10:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=9064"},"modified":"2023-09-11T10:52:21","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T10:52:21","slug":"niger-junta-accuses-france-of-deploying-troops-for-possible-intervention-macron-says-forces-will-redeploy-only-at-bazoums-requests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/9064\/niger-junta-accuses-france-of-deploying-troops-for-possible-intervention-macron-says-forces-will-redeploy-only-at-bazoums-requests\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger junta accuses France of deploying troops for possible intervention; Macron says forces will redeploy only at Bazoum’s requests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Niger’s junta on Sunday accused France of deploying troops in several West African countries as part of preparations for a possible military intervention together with the regional bloc ECOWAS in Niger.<\/p>\n

In a communique read on state television overnight, the junta also repeated its call for the departure of French troops from its territory – a major source of tension between the one-time allies since the July 26 ouster of president Mohamed Bazoum.<\/p>\n

The statement appealed to “national and international opinion to witness the consequences of this aggressive, underhanded and contemptuous attitude adopted by France.”<\/p>\n

Relations between Niger and its former coloniser France have soured since Paris declared the junta illegitimate. Amid a wave of anti-French sentiment, the coup’s leaders have also followed the strategy of juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso in seeking to end long-standing military ties with France in the regionwide fight against Islamist insurgencies.<\/p>\n

Asked about the junta’s latest comments, French President Emmanuel Macron said “we do not recognise any legitimacy in the statements of the putschists.”<\/p>\n

Regarding the some 1,500 French troops stationed in Niger, Macron said any decision about their deployment would only be made in coordination with Bazoum.<\/p>\n

“If we ever redeploy… I would do so only at the request of President Bazoum,” Macron told a news conference at the close of a two-day summit of G20 leaders in India.<\/p>\n

He did not directly address the allegation that France was deploying troops elsewhere in West Africa as part of a regional\u00a0proposal to use force<\/a>\u00a0as a last resort to restore democracy.<\/p>\n

The main regional bloc ECOWAS has slapped sanctions on Niger and activated a so-called standby force for the possible military intervention, although talks are ongoing to find a diplomatic solution.<\/p>\n

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who holds ECOWAS’ revolving chairmanship, has suggested that a nine-month transition back to civilian rule could satisfy regional powers. Niger’s junta has previously proposed a three-year timeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Niger’s junta on Sunday accused France of deploying troops in several West African countries as part of preparations for a possible military intervention together with the regional bloc ECOWAS in Niger. In a communique read on state television overnight, the junta also repeated its call for the departure of French troops from its territory – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"Reuters","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,33],"tags":[196,41,164,290,1327,383],"class_list":["post-9064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-west-africa","category-politics","tag-bola-tinubu","tag-ecowas","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-france","tag-mohamed-bazoum","tag-niger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}