🇳🇪 Niger Latest: ➡️ Today - ECOWAS defence officials will meet in Nigeria to discuss the coup in Niger. ➡️ Overnight - Flights evacuating more than 300 Europeans from Niger have arrived in France and Italy. 👉
On Sunday, protesters outside the French embassy in the capital Niamey chanted "Long live Russia", "Long live Putin" and "Down with France".France sent planes because the closure of Niger's airspace has made it impossible for people to leave by their own means.Image caption,Italy's foreign ministry says there are about 90 Italians in Niamey out of a total of just under 500 countrywide, most of whom are in the military, the AFP news agency reports.
Earlier, France had welcomed the ultimatum issued on Sunday by the West African bloc Ecowas, giving Niger's junta a week to reinstate elected President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been confined to the presidential palace in Niamey. Ecowas's last major military intervention was in The Gambia in 2017, when Yahya Jammeh refused to step down as president after losing elections to Adama Barrow. After West African troops deployed, Mr Jammeh went into exile in Equatorial Guinea.
Niger's junta has not commented on the Ecowas demand, but vowed to defend the country from any "aggression" by regional or Western powers. It accused France of planning military intervention. "But it is possible that Russia tries to take advantage of the situation. It does it in other countries of the region. It's an hypothesis."
There are no good options in Niger. The West looks set to lose its strategic counter-terror bases there and military intervention by Ecowas would almost certainly lead to a civil war.
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