Niger junta says French forces destabilising country, France denies

NIAMEY, (Reuters): Niger’s junta accused France on Wednesday of violating its airspace, attacking a military camp and freeing “terrorists” as part of a broader plan to destabilise the country, charges swiftly denied by Paris.

The video statement by army officer Amadou Abdramane, which provided no evidence, came at a moment of high tension, with West African heads of state set to discuss options including military action against the junta on Thursday.

“What we are seeing is a plan to destabilise our country,” Abdramane said in the statement, accusing France of seeking to undermine the credibility of the junta in the eyes of the people and create a climate of insecurity.

France’s foreign ministry rejected the accusations, saying the aircraft movements were part of an earlier agreement with Niger forces and that its troops stationed in the west African nation were there at the request of the legitimate authorities.

“No attack against a Nigerien camp took place,” it added in its statement responding to the junta’s accusations.

It is not the first time that the Niger coup leaders have accused France of breaching their airspace.

The party of Niger’s deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum, accused the junta, which seized power on July 26, of keeping him and his family in “cruel” and “inhumane” detention conditions at the presidential residence.

In a statement calling for a nationwide mobilisation to save them, the PNDS-Tarayya party said the Bazoums had no running water, no electricity and no access to fresh goods or doctors.

INTERNAL RESISTANCE

Earlier on Wednesday, news emerged that a former rebel leader had launched a movement opposing the junta, marking the first sign of internal resistance to army rule in the strategically important Sahel country.

Niger is the world’s seventh-largest producer of uranium, the most widely used fuel for nuclear energy. It also extracts 20,000 barrels per day of oil, mostly from Chinese-run projects, and expects a major surge in output via a new export pipeline to Benin.