Niger : La junte appelle à se « préparer » à une guerre avec la France
During a meeting with young people in Niamey, the chief of staff to the junta leader insisted that war with France was approaching.
Relations between Paris and Niamey are already strained and are not improving. A senior member of the Nigerien junta has just called on the population to "prepare" for "war with France."
Since a military regime seized power in a coup in July 2023, Niger has regularly accused France of trying to destabilize the country. The head of the junta, General Aboudrahamane Tiani, even directly accused Emmanuel Macron of being the "sponsor" of the Islamic State jihadists who attacked Niamey's international airport in late January. Paris, whose soldiers engaged in the fight against jihadism had to leave Niger in late 2023 after a long diplomatic standoff with the junta, has always denied any intention of destabilizing the country.
Shouts hostile to France
During a rally on Wednesday, addressing young people in a Niamey stadium, General Amadou Ibro, Chief of Staff to General Tiani, asserted that France was going to "wage war on Niger" because, according to him, his country was responsible for the "poor economic situation" in France. "This mobilization has been carried out, it has been decreed, so that we can prepare for war with France."
“Know this, we are going to war with France. We weren’t at war before, but now we are going to war with France,” he added to applause from the audience and shouts of “Down with France!” The video was widely shared on social media Thursday morning.
Uranium showdown
"There is no question of French intervention in Niger," denied the spokesman for the French Armed Forces General Staff, Colonel Guillaume Vernet, believing that it was "clearly an information war" on the part of Niger.
Niger severed ties with Paris following the 2023 coup, and the junta asserts a policy of sovereignty, particularly over its raw materials, accusing the former colonial power of having plundered its resources. To this end, it nationalized Somaïr, a subsidiary of the French uranium giant Orano, which has in turn initiated several legal proceedings. Niger, which intends to sue Orano for alleged environmental damage, announced at the end of 2025 its intention to sell its uranium on the international market. Before the coup, Niger accounted for no more than 20% of France's uranium supply.
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