Niger: France wants to provoke ethnic conflict before leaving Niamey

French President Emmanuel Macron has finally agreed to recall Ambassador Silvain Itté and the 1,500 French troops in Niamey at the request of the new authorities in Niger. Consultations are underway with the National Council for the safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) with a view to repatriating the French troops stationed in Niger.

Doesn’t this sudden and spectacular change in Emmanuel Macron’s position presage a disastrous plan?

All the more so as the French President has adopted a bellicose stance since the CNSP seized power on 26 July.

Macron even went so far as to call the members of the CNSP illegitimate, and ordered them to reinstate Mohamed Bazoum.

Well, as expected, Macron is hanging on and playing his last card, given that the others have been a failure, especially the war he was preparing against Niger under cover of ECOWAS. François Hollande’s successor is now inciting ethnic hatred.

According to him, the overthrow of his «long-standing friend Bazoum» was ethnically motivated.

«The only legitimate authority in Niger is President Bazoum, who was elected by his people (…) The reason for this coup is that he was carrying out courageous reforms, and because deep down there are largely ethnic scores to be settled», he asserted.

Emmanuel Macron’s allegations have only one aim: to fan the flames of hatred within the army and among the people, who give their unwavering support to the CNSP, Niger’s new authorities.

The French president can always try, but his paternalistic relationship with Niger is well and truly over, as it is with Burkina-Faso and Mali, which are now forming an alliance against all imperialist aims and control.

Fayçal BADIE