“Everyone is right here to combat for our freedom,” Issaka stated late final month as he stood exterior the navy base in Niamey, the place nightly protests solely just lately started to wane. “What we’ve had is simply so-called independence from France.”
Though the July coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum started due to a dispute with the pinnacle of his presidential guard, Western officers and analysts say, junta leaders have capitalized on rising resentment towards France among the many inhabitants to cement their reputation. Taking a web page from current coups in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger’s new navy leaders have tarred the nation’s democratic leaders as too intently linked with France and promoted a populist message calling for the departure of the French navy and diplomats from the area.
“You want an enemy, and the juntas have stated from the start that France is their enemy,” stated Rahmane Idrissa, a Nigerien political scientist primarily based within the Netherlands. “They’re nearly in a temper the place they’re excessive on nationalism. And so they’re accepting all the things proper now within the title of nationalism.”
Anti-French sentiment has lengthy existed in France’s former African colonies however in recent times has change into an more and more powerful factor within the Sahel area, which cuts throughout the continent beneath the Sahara desert and contains Niger. West Africans have grown pissed off that France’s navy presence has not stopped violent assaults by Islamist extremist teams and been uncovered to widespread criticism and disinformation about France on social media.
Issaka, who additionally lived for years in the US, stated that he believes in democracy. However he stated that Bazoum and his predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou, who was additionally elected democratically, had grown corrupt, ineffective and too intently related to France to be thought-about official.
Inside just a few days of the July coup, the junta spokesman publicly warned of a “plan of aggression” by France. 1000’s of Nigeriens marched towards the French embassy, chanting “down with France” and waving Russian flags earlier than smashing home windows and setting a door on the embassy on hearth. Just a few weeks later, the junta gave France’s ambassador a 48-hour deadline to depart and ended navy cooperation between the 2 nations. The French military says its 1,500 troopers, who’ve already started to leave Niger, might be utterly in another country by the tip of the yr.
A senior French official stated that the Nigerien regime has had “dangerous outcomes when it comes to safety and the economic system, so they’re focusing their posture on asking the French to go away.” The official stated that France, on the request of Niger’s leaders earlier than the coup, had been working with Nigerien military as a accomplice, with the Nigeriens main operations. It stays “a really open query” how France, the European Union and United States will now be capable of pursue counterterrorism within the area, stated the official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the state of affairs.
Andrew Lebovich, a analysis fellow with the Clingendael Institute, a assume tank within the Netherlands, stated the velocity with which the partnership ended mirrored the Nigerien navy’s suspicions about French intentions. It additionally revealed displeasure with French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to acknowledge coup leaders and insistence that Bazoum remained the pinnacle of state.
“European and American officers noticed Niger as this final bastion for cooperation and affordable, well-thought-out insurance policies on safety issues,” he stated. “That was why this coup hit them particularly onerous.”
The French overseas affairs ministry and Macron’s workplace didn’t reply to requests for remark. A senior French official beforehand stated that France, on the request of Niger’s leaders earlier than the coup, had been working with Niger’s military as a accomplice with the Nigeriens main operations.
Hannah Rae Armstrong, a Sahel skilled primarily based in Dakar, stated that Nigerien assist for the coup spoke to the differing perceptions at house and overseas. In Europe and the US, Bazoum and Issoufou had been largely celebrated as uncommon democratic leaders within the area. In Niger, Armstrong stated, they had been usually perceived as leaders of an ineffective, corrupt political regime.
“The coup may very well be learn as a declaration of independence,” she stated. “It quantities to a rejection of a political mannequin Nigeriens perceived as allying French pursuits with their very own corrupt management. With a view to do issues otherwise, they needed to sweep away each.”
Within the wake of the coup, Niger’s different onetime Western companions, together with the US, are being pressured to chart a brand new technique as they attempt to counter teams linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State and Russia’s growing influence in the region. The US, which has about 1,000 troopers in Niger and a big drone base, has paused all operations not associated to the safety of its personal forces. Already, the nation has seen a spike in assaults by extremists for the reason that coup.
Because the coup, the primary query that foreigners usually get in Niger’s capital is a model of: “Vous venez d’où?” The query — “The place are you from?” in French — has been requested in markets and on the aspect of the street, by activists, by common folks and by authorities officers alike.
“Good,” stated Birgui Abat Ahmad, a 50-year-old prepare dinner sitting underneath the shade of a neem tree on a current day, upon studying a journalist was from the US. “As a result of we hate the French.”
Lounging on a bamboo chair by the aspect of the street between afternoon prayers and lunch, Ahmad furrowed his forehead and wagged his finger: “If somebody tells you there’s a good French particular person,” he stated, “they’re incorrect.”
Ahmad and his associates, veering into conspiracy theories, accused France of pillaging Niger’s pure provide of uranium and of working behind the scenes to destabilize the area. They castigated Bazoum and Issoufou as being “puppets” of France.
Researchers famous that Bazoum broke with sure insurance policies supported by the French, together with by negotiating with native extremist teams and supporting efforts to demobilize Islamist militants.
Activist Abdoulaye Seydou, the nationwide coordinator for the M62 coalition of civil society teams, stated the record of grievances in opposition to France is lengthy. Seydou, whose group has largely supported the brand new leaders, accused French politicians of making an attempt to exert management over previous makes an attempt at navy cooperation amongst West African nations. He stated Nigerien troopers advised him that French counterparts weren’t clear or respectful, even towards their Nigerien superiors.
Seydou stated the ultimate straw got here when the French navy opened hearth on civilians in 2021 after they surrounded a convoy heading to Mali to protest the French navy presence, then did not take duty. The Nigerien authorities on the time stated that two civilians had been killed that day. A spokesman for the French military stated on the time that troopers had “used pressure in a proportionate and applicable method” given the violence of the gang and added that the “confused state of affairs” made it unattainable decide whether or not there was a hyperlink between the French pictures and the deaths of the demonstrators.
Seydou stated the door is just not perpetually closed to working with foreigners, so long as they “respect our sovereignty.”
However he added: “So far as France is anxious, we don’t see any cooperation with them at the moment.”
Omar Hama Saley in Niamey contributed to this report.
