Metropolis Desk-
The military of Niger claims that France has gathered personnel and supplies in several West African nations in preparation for a “military intervention” against Niamey. On national television late on Saturday, Colonel Amadou Abdramane, a spokesman for the coup leaders in Niger, made the assertion.
To “make preparations for an aggression against Niger, which it is planning in collaboration with this community organization,” he claimed that France was still stationing troops in ECOWAS member nations.
He claimed that enormous amounts of war supplies and equipment could now be unloaded in Senegal, the Ivory Coast, and Benin, to name just a few places, thanks to French military cargo aircraft.
In the wake of a military coup on July 26, tensions between Niger and France, its former colonial power, have risen.
When Niger demanded that Paris remove its troops and an envoy from the Sahel state, Paris stood behind ousted leader Mohamed Bazoum.
The ECOWAS bloc, which has threatened to act militarily if diplomatic pressure to reinstate Bazoum as president fails, and Niger are both involved in a deadlock.
A military base in Niamey that houses French soldiers has been the focus of nearly daily protests by thousands of locals calling for their evacuation. As part of a larger campaign against organizations affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), France maintains roughly 1,500 soldiers in the nation.
On Tuesday, a source in the French defense ministry told the AFP news agency that Paris was in discussions with the military dictatorship about “elements” of its presence in Niger being withdrawn.
The remarks appeared to support those of Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, who was installed by the military and had claimed that negotiations for a “very swift” withdrawal of French troops were in progress.
Zeine stated that his administration was “hopeful” of reaching an agreement with ECOWAS and that it wants to “maintain cooperation with a country with which we have shared a great deal.”
The US Department of Defense announced this week that the US, which has roughly 1,100 soldiers in Niger, has started to move its troops from Niamey to the country’s capital city of Agadez as a “precaution.”
Source- Al Jazeera
