Niger coup: UK reduces variety of employees at embassy in face of unrest after navy takeover

Aug 03, 2023 at 9:05 AM

Britain is decreasing the variety of employees at its embassy in Niger following final week’s navy coup amid the specter of pro-junta demonstrations.

It comes after the US ordered the partial evacuation of its diplomatic put up within the nation’s capital Niamey in response to the takeover by the army and the toppling of the democratically elected authorities led by Mohamed Bazoum.

France and Italy have already introduced plans to fly their citizens out of Niger.

In an announcement, the UK Foreign Office mentioned: “There has been a military takeover in Niger, which has led to protests and unrest.”

With an additional pro-junta demonstration deliberate to mark Niger’s independence from France, which dominated the nation as a colony till 1960, it added: “Protests can be violent and the situation could change quickly without warning.”

A earlier rally led to an attack on the French embassy with its doorways set on fireplace and the constructing stoned.

Meanwhile, Niger’s neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso have warned different neighbouring nations in opposition to navy intervention in opposition to the mutineers.

The West African regional physique – generally known as ECOWAS – has beforehand threatened using pressure if coup leaders in Niger don’t reinstate the nation’s elected president.

But Mali and Burkina Faso, themselves each run by navy governments, have mentioned they are going to contemplate any direct intervention in Niger as a “declaration of war” in opposition to them.

The two nations – who’re each at the moment suspended from ECOWAS – have additionally denounced the regional physique’s financial sanctions in opposition to Niger as “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane” and have refused to use them.

What is ECOWAS?

Standing for the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS is a commerce bloc consisting of West African nations.

Set up in 1975, and headquartered in Nigeria, its principal intention is to make its member states, the vast majority of that are former French, British and Portuguese colonies, self-sufficient.

But ECOWAS additionally serves as a peacekeeping pressure within the area, with members capable of ship joint forces to intervene at occasions of unrest.

Though the bloc at the moment has 15 members, 4 nations, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger, are at the moment suspended following navy coups.

ECOWAS suspended all industrial and monetary transactions between its member states and Niger, in addition to freezing Nigerien property held in regional central banks, within the wake of the putsch.

Guinea, one other nation below navy rule since 2021, has additionally shared its assist of Niger’s junta and urged ECOWAS to “come to its senses”.

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The Russian mercenary group Wagner is already working in neighbouring Mali and its boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has hailed the coup and supplied his fighters’ providers.

The takeover has been broadly condemned by worldwide companions together with the US, the United Nations, and the European Union.

They have all refused to recognise self-declared head of state General Abdourahamane Tiani and demanded the restoration of the federal government.

Niger is without doubt one of the poorest nations on this planet, receiving near $2bn (£1.6bn) a yr in official improvement help, in line with the World Bank.

It can be a safety ally of France and the US, which each use it as a base to struggle an Islamist insurgency in West and Central Africa’s wider Sahel area.