Militaryjuntas in neighbouring burkina faso and mali warned that any Foreign Military intervention in niger, would be considered a Declaration Of War on them. A french mp for emmanuel macron s Renaissance Party spoke to the bbc about the countrys Evacuation Mission and said paris was left with no other choice. Translation we estimate that a few hundred people french people wish to leave, and have clearly expressed this intention, since we know that the tradition between European Countries is to show solidarity. If other European Countries decide to organise your evacuations, which is possible, we would Work Together to evacuate those who want to leave. Niger is a key part of africas sahel region which stretches from the atlantic to the red sea. Burkina faso and mali, have also seen recent military coups, and say, they would come to the defence of their neighbour. On sunday, the Regional Bloc ecowas made up of 15 west african countries, gave the coup leaders in niger one week to restore
they would come to the defence of their neighbour. on sunday, the regional bloc ecowas made up of 15 west african countries, gave the coup leaders in niger one week to restore president bazoum or threatened them with use of force. and of course there s been extensive coverage of this story ulf laessing is the sahel regional director for the german think tank konrad adenauer stiftung joining us from bamako in mali. thank you for being on bbc news. your assessment of where we currently are? your assessment of where we currentl are? . w ., ., currently are? the french evacuation shows that whatever currently are? the french evacuation shows that whatever hopes - currently are? the french evacuation shows that whatever hopes there - shows that whatever hopes there might ve been that the can be stopped and normalcy restored our fading fast. we are heading for escalation. there is another protest planned from the french embassy, we have seen threats of military
president, mohamed bazoum. he comes from an ethnic minority, and there are questions about whether he had full support when he was sworn in back in 2021 in the country s first peaceful transition. and that could be one of the reasons. some of the other reasons, however, could also be the fact that previous coups you talked about, almost eight of them having been attempted over the last couple of years, three at least, that was successful. and you ve seen what s happened after that as much as they ve been strong responses from the african union ecowas, economic community of west african states and other regional and international bodies as well. the coup plotters still managed to stay in power and in some sense begin to establish normal relations with the rest of the world. and one then wonders, did these military leaders look at what was happening within the country, within the region, look at what previous trends they ve been in regards to coups and made a similar decisions as well? s