Withdrawal of French troops from Niger: Step to deteriorate France Economy?

Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed

“Without Africa, France will be relegated to the ranks of Third World countries”, Jacques Chirac

The French soldiers were sent to Niger as part of a larger Sahel campaign against militants. However, since the new leadership started pressuring them to leave, French troops were facing sporadic food supplies and frequent anti-French protests outside their Niamey base. In September, under intense pressure from the military officers who took over in July, France decided to remove its troops in Niger, marking the end of France’s military relationship with its former colony.
On 26 July 2023, a coup d’état occurred in Niger when the country’s presidential guard detained president Mohamed Bazoum, and Presidential Guard Commander General Abdourahamane Tchiani proclaimed himself the leader of a new military junta, shortly after confirming the coup a success.
French influence over its former colonies has waned in West Africa in recent years, just as popular vitriol has grown. Its forces have been kicked out of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso since coups in those countries, reducing its role in a region-wide fight against deadly Islamist insurgencies.
When the coup occurred, Niger had remained the key security partner of France and the United States, which have used it as a base to fight an Islamist insurgency in West and Central Africa’s wider Sahel region.
The July 26 coup in Niger – one of eight in West and Central Africa since 2020 – has sucked in global powers concerned about a shift to military rule across the region.
Lately, French President, Emmanuel Macron, declared the troops’ departure at the end of September, after the Niger generals demanded their evacuation. Pick-up vehicles and armored personnel carriers filled with French soldiers crossed the outskirts of capital Niamey on Tuesday, October 10, according to a Reuters report, after the junta announced their departure.
The French evacuation came after Algeria chose to postpone mediation efforts to find a solution to Niger’s crisis.

In a declaration on state television, the military administration asked for the support of the Nigeriens to facilitate the troop withdrawals, as a portion of the 1,500 French soldiers would be traveling hundreds of kilometers by road to Chad, about 1,400 French soldiers and airmen were stationed in Niger to fight alongside Niger’s previous government against militants, about 1,000 of them are stationed in Niamey, and 400 more are stationed at two forward bases in the west, at Tabarey-Barey and Ouallam, deep within the so-called “three borders” zone that shares borders with Burkina Faso and Mali.
The military governments ruling neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso also drove French forces, escalating Western worries about Russia’s growing influence in Africa.
The July 26 coup in Niger – one of eight in West and Central Africa since 2020 – has sucked in global powers concerned about a shift to military rule across the region.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, declared the troops’ departure at the end of September, after the Niger generals demanded their evacuation.
French military convoys have begun withdrawing from Niger, marking the start of a departure demanded by Niger’s junta that has dealt a further blow to France’s influence in West Africa’s conflict-hit Sahel region. French military convoys started leaving bases in the Niger’s southwest, further undermining France’s standing in the conflict-torn Sahel region.
In a statement read on state television, the military government called for citizens’ cooperation with the troop movements that it said would involve some of the 1,500 French soldiers leaving Niger via road to Chad, a journey of hundreds of kilometers through sometimes insecure territory.
A few dozen French servicemen flew out of Niger on a military plane on Monday, an airport worker and two other sources familiar with the flight said.
A joint France-Niger withdrawal plan, seen by Reuters, said Niger’s military would provide security back-up to the French convoys withdrawing by land.
Following weeks of pressure from the military officers who seized power in July, France last month agreed to withdraw its troops based in Niger, marking a definitive breakdown in military ties with it.
It is the fourth time in under two years that French troops have suffered the humiliation of being forced out of a former African colony, coming after Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso.
France’s exit, which comes after weeks of pressure from the junta and popular demonstrations, is likely to exacerbate Western concerns over Russia’s expanding influence in Africa. The Russian mercenary force Wagner already present in Niger’s neighbor Mali.
The French president has refused to recognize the junta as Niger’s legitimate authority but said Paris would coordinate troop withdraw with the coup leaders.
France’s ambassador was also being pulled out and would return to the country in the next few hours, Macron added.
The military governments ruling neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso also drove French forces, escalating Western worries about Russia’s growing influence in Africa.
The French evacuation came after Algeria chose to postpone mediation efforts to find a solution to Niger’s crisis.
RUSSIA’S EXPANDING PRESENCE
France’s military base in Niger’s capital, Niamey, had become the epicenter of anti-French protests since the July 26 coup.
Groups have regularly gathered on the street outside to call for the exit of troops stationed in the capital. On one Saturday this month, tens of thousands rallied against France, slitting the throat of a goat dressed in French colors and carrying coffins draped in French flags.
Pro-coup demonstrators in Niamey have waved Russian flags, adding to Western countries’ fears that Niger could follow Mali’s lead and replace their troops with Wagner fighters.
Before his death in a plane crash last month, Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin spoke in a social media clip of making Russia greater on all continents and Africa more free. Wagner’s future has been unclear since his demise.
Wagner is also active in Central African Republic and Libya. Western nations say it is also present in Sudan, though it denies this. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a return to constitutional order in Niger.