FRANCE AMBASSADOR TO NIGER REPUBLIC LITERALLY HELD HOSTAGE – MACRON
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On Friday, President Emmanuel Macron said that the French ambassador to Niger is effectively being held captive within the embassy and that military authorities are obstructing food deliveries to the mission.
According to Macron, the ambassador is subsisting on “military rations” in the French town of Semur-en-Auxois.
The ambassador is living off “military rations”, Macron told reporters in the French town of Semur-en-Auxois.
“As we speak, we have an ambassador and diplomatic staff who are literally being held hostage in the French embassy,” he said.
“They are preventing food deliveries,” he said, in an apparent reference to Niger’s new military rulers. “He is eating military rations.”
Niger’s military leaders told French ambassador Sylvain Itte he had to leave the country after they overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.
But despite a 48-hour deadline to depart set in August, the French government refused to abide by it or acknowledge the legitimacy of the military dictatorship, leaving him in place.
The majority of Niger’s neighbours and France both denounced the coup.
The ambassador “cannot go out; he is persona non grata, and he is being refused food,” according to Macron.
When asked if France would think about sending him home, Macron responded, “I will do whatever we agree with President Bazoum because he is the legitimate authority and I speak with him every day.”
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna later said the ambassador “is working” and would stay at his post for as long as Paris wished.
“He is very useful for us with his contacts and those of his team,” Colonna told LCI television, adding the ambassador still had a small team with him.
Around 1,500 French troops remain in Niger, and the French government stated earlier this month that any redeployment could only be discussed with Bazoum.
The nation’s new leaders have revoked agreements for military cooperation with France and ordered the troops to depart right away.
The EU, which has backed Macron’s refusal to comply with the demand to recall the French ambassador and called it “a provocation,” has supported Macron’s stance for weeks.
According to EU spokeswoman for foreign affairs Nabila Massrali last month, the EU, like France, “does not recognise” the government that seized control of Niger.
The impoverished Sahel region south of the Sahara has suffered what Macron has called an “epidemic” of coups in recent years, with military regimes replacing elected governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea as well as Niger.
AFP
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