Niger junta instructs police to expel French ambassador

NIAMEY, Aug 31 (Reuters) – The junta that seized power in Niger last month said that the French ambassador to Niger, Sylvain Itte, no longer had diplomatic immunity and police had been instructed to expel him.

The junta on Friday ordered the ambassador to leave the country within 48 hours in response to actions taken by the French government which it said were “contrary to the interests of Niger”.

The visas of the ambassador and his family were cancelled, the junta said in a statement dated Aug. 29 and confirmed as authentic by the junta’s head of communications.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that the ambassador would stay in the country despite the junta’s pressure and reiterated France’s support to Niger’s ousted president Mohamed Bazoum.

European Union foreign ministers meet in Spain on Thursday to discuss their response to last month’s coup in Niger – including possible sanctions – as they also consider news of military officers declaring they have seized power in Gabon.

The instability in the West and Central African countries will be a major theme of the informal gathering in the medieval city of Toledo, along with discussions on the war in Ukraine with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Hassoumi Massoudou, the foreign minister of Niger’s ousted government, and Omar Touray, the head of the commission of West Africa’s main regional bloc ECOWAS, will attend the talks.

“It is clear that the coup in Niger is opening a new era of instability in a region which was already very fragile, and this will undermine the stability of the region,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Toledo on Wednesday.

West and Central African nations had in the last decade made strides to shed the region’s reputation as a “coup belt”, only for persistent insecurity, disputed elections and systemic corruption to open the door to a string of military takeovers.