French troops will begin withdrawing from Niger “this week”, weeks after President Emmanuel Macron said he refused to be “held hostage” by junta and was ending military cooperation with the West African country.
“We will begin our disengagement operation this week, in good order, safely and in coordination with the Nigeriens,” the military French headquarters said.
The announcement comes a week after France’s ambassador to Niamey returned home under pressure from the junta.
The decision to pull 1,500 troops from Niger deals a huge blow to French influence in the Sahel.
President Macron had announced on September 24 the withdrawal of French troops “by the end of the year”.
Paris’ soldiers were in Niger as part of a wider fight against insurgents across the Sahel region.
Some 400 are deployed alongside local troops in northwestern Niger, near its borders with Burkina Faso and Mali.
The “three borders” zone is known as a haven for the Daesh terrorist group.
Soldiers withdrawing from the area would need cover to leave their exposed forward positions, the military headquarters said, possibly including air support from the larger force at an airbase outside the capital Niamey.
The troops have been living with uncertainty since the junta began demanding their departure, with repeated anti-French demonstrations outside the Niamey base.
France had reinforced its presence in Niger after another coup-born military rule in Mali demanded its forces’ departure, adding armored vehicles and helicopters to the drones and fighter jets already deployed.
Its troops will now have to withdraw either via Benin to the south — at odds with the junta in Niamey — or Chad to the east, the site of France’s headquarters for the Sahel theatre.
For now, Niamey forbids French flights over its territory.
