Sawt Falasteen - European nations to evacuate citizens after Niger coup

in the region's third military takeover in as many years, President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by his own guard, triggering alarm bells in France, Niger's former colonial power and traditional ally.

After hostile crowds gathered on Sunday outside the French embassy and Niger accused France of plotting to intervene militarily, Paris said Tuesday it would withdraw citizens and offered to evacuate other Europeans as well.

"In the face of a deteriorating security situation in Niamey and taking advantage of the relative calm in Niamey, an operation of evacuation by air is being prepared," the embassy told French citizens.

The evacuations "will take place very soon in a very limited span of time," it said.

The initiative marks the first time that France has staged a large-scale evacuation in its former colonies in the Sahel, where there have been coups in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020.

The German ministry urged "all German nationals" to take up the French evacuation offer. It said that fewer than 100 German civilians were believed to be in Niger.

In Rome, the government said it was putting on a "special flight" for Italians wishing to leave the country. Around 90 Italians are in Niamey, out of nearly 500 across the country, it said.

- First flight leaves -

A first French plane later took off for Niamey, said a French source involved in the operation. Another source said France would be using unarmed military transporters, capable of taking more than 200 people.

The French foreign ministry said about 600 French nationals were in Niger.

Around a hundred of them carrying only light luggage gathered on Tuesday afternoon at Niamey's Diori Hamadi international airport, where Nigerien police and about 20 French soldiers were deployed.

But several French citizens told AFP they did not want to leave Niger immediately.

"I'm staying for the time being," said one man who said he could only speak anonymously, under orders from his aid organisation employers.

"We don't have a problem with the French" or Europeans, said a Nigerien named Hamidou Ali, aged 58. "We have a problem with European governments."

But student Mahamadou Issoufou Idi said, "The French should leave -- we no longer need them."

- 'Declaration of war' -

The West African bloc ECOWAS on Sunday slapped sanctions on Niger and warned it may use force as it gave the coup leaders a week to reinstate Bazoum.

The following day, the junta accused France of seeking to "intervene militarily", a charge which drew a French denial, while junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso warned any military intervention in Niger would be a "declaration of war" against them.

The events are unfolding in one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries -- a vast semi-desert nation that had already experienced four coups since independence in 1960.

Bazoum was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger's first-ever peaceful transition of power.

But his tenure was already marked by two attempted coups before last week's dramatic events, in which he was detained by members of the elite Presidential Guard.

Guards chief General Abdourahamane Tiani has declared himself leader -- but his claim has been rejected internationally, from ECOWAS, the African Union and the UN to France, the United States and the European Union.

According to Bazoum's PNDS party, the junta has arrested the country's oil, mining, interior and transport ministers, the head of the PNDS's executive committee, and a former defence minister.

- Alarm -

The coup has worried Western countries struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that flared in northern Mali in 2012, advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso three years later and now overshadows fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.

An unknown number of civilians, troops and police have been killed across the region, many in ruthless massacres, while around 2.2 million people in Burkina Faso alone have fled their homes. The economic damage has been devastating.

France had at one point 5,400 troops in its anti-jihadist Barkhane mission across the Sahel, supported by fighter jets, helicopters and drones.

But that mission was drastically refocussed on Niger last year, when France pulled out of Mali and Burkina Faso after falling out with their juntas.

Today's reconfigured French force has 1,500 men, many deployed at a major air base near Niamey, while the United States has an important air base in Niger and 1,100 personnel.

In all three Sahel countries, the disgruntled military intervened against elected presidents as the toll mounted from jihadist attacks.

A.AlHaj--SF-PST