Credit: X/@SylvainItte
The Niger militia junta has stated that the French ambassador to Niger, Sylvain Itte, no longer has diplomatic immunity.
It has subsequently directed the police to expel him from the West African nation.
Closing Friday, the junta ordered the ambassador to head away the nation inside of Forty eight hours after refusing to fulfill with the coup leaders who ousted Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, 2023.
Niger’s international ministry stated that French authorities actions had been “contrary to the pursuits of Niger.”
Meanwhile, the visas of the ambassador and his family had been cancelled by the junta.
French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday stated the ambassador, Itte would remain at his put up in the nation despite being asked to head away by the ruling junta.
Macron whereas addressing a convention of ambassadors in Paris, together with Itte, who attended virtually about, insisted that France used to be no longer Niger’s enemy.
Earlier on Monday, it used to be reported that native authorities had decrease off the water and electrical energy to the French embassy in Niamey, even if Itte and any other diplomats had been unexcited there.
“France and its diplomats win faced particularly complex eventualities in some international locations in fresh months, from Sudan, where France has been exemplary, to Niger at this very moment, and I applaud your colleague and your colleagues who’re listening from their posts,” Macron stated throughout the convention
“Our policy is glaring: we attain no longer acknowledge the putschists,” he stated.
“Our policy is the coolest one. It is dependent on the courage of President Mohamed Bazoum, the commitment of our diplomats, of our ambassador on the floor who is closing despite stress.
“One shouldn’t give in to the legend long-established by the coup leaders that contains claiming France has change into our enemy.
“The topic of Nigeriens this present day is the coup leaders who put them in be troubled because of they are abandoning the fight against terrorism, because of they are abandoning a policy that used to be economically just precise for (the inhabitants) they in most cases are throughout of shedding world funding that used to be helping them emerge from poverty.”
