Algeria’s national radio reported on Monday that France is planning a military intervention in Niger if Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum is not released by the junta that ousted him in a July 26 coup.
The radio report cited a government source who said Algeria is opposed to any intervention in Niger over fears it will destabilize the region and lead to a migrant crisis, as the disastrous US and NATO intervention in Libya did.
According to Israel’s i24, the Algerian report said that “France is preparing to carry out its threats against the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) in Niger, by carrying out a military intervention in the event that President Mohamed Bazoum is not released.” The CNSP is the name the military junta has given its post-coup government.
The Algerian report also said that Algeria denied a request from France to use its airspace as part of a potential Niger intervention. “The military intervention is said to be imminent, with all the military apparatus in place,” the radio report said. “Algeria, which has always rejected the use of force, has given a negative response to the French request to fly over its national territory to attack Niger. Algiers’ response is firm and unequivocal.”
On Tuesday, a French official denied that Paris asked to use Algeria’s airspace. “France’s joint defense staff denies making a request to fly over Algerian territory,” said a source within the French army, according to Reuters.
France, the former colonial ruler of Algeria and Niger, has about 1,500 troops in Niger and has backed threats from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) if Bazoum is not reinstated. ECOWAS said after a recent meeting of its military chiefs that it’s ready to intervene once the order is given and that the bloc is still leaving room for diplomacy. However, the Niger junta has shown no sign that its willing to give in to ECOWAS’s main demand: the reinstatement of Bazoum.
if Nigerian President Bazoum is not released by the junta that ousted him in a July 26 coup
what, are they just keeping the poor guy on ice somewhere?
He and his family are under house arrest. They were at the presidential palace, don’t know where they are now.
*Nigerien. “Nigerian” = from Nigeria, “Nigerien” (French spelling and pronunciation) = from Niger.
He’s under house arrest but accused of high treason.
France is due for a truckload of bad Karma. The more, the better.
Viva la colonialism!
I’m gonna guess that a French military intervention may not be the best choice if Bazoum’s safety is an important consideration.
W/o the US, France will not be able to do jack unless they bribe the locals to do the dirty work as usual.
They’ll do what they did in Libya, bomb ’em.
From where exactly? Africa is immense and they lack advanced bases. Libya was just outside Europe, this is thousands of miles inland away from any usable base. Even deploying the only aircraft carrier that France has to the Gulf of Guinea would still have the fighters a thousand kilometers south from Niger.
Excluding Nijer the US still has between 20 & 25 bases in Africa with at least one, Kenya, having an airfield; ntm ally Nigeria has 10 or more air force bases, one reasonably assumes operational bases have air fields. Even though the US couldn’t get aircraft over Benghazi when it’s CIA black site was under attack I’m betting just as they got planes to Libya to bomb it to smithereens they can do the same for Nijer if so inclined.
Kenya is further from Niger than I am, and I am in Europe. The USA has many small drone and surveillance outposts but not really real military bases. People draw US flags all around but all flags are not the same at all, most are almost irrelevant (at least in real war conditions).
The attack against Libya was done from European bases and ships operating by the Libyan coast: it’s a totally different scenario. This would be even more complicated than the first Iraq War, which the USA exploited to obtain military bases in the Gulf countries, notably refractary Saudi Arabia, bases they needed to operate in the region anyhow. The USA or France could try to get bases in Nigeria but still they’d need time to get them established and the aircraft moved over there, it’s not imediate.
The stand of Algeria is absolutely expected as they are uncommittedly supportive of the new Sahelian juntas and have been growing closer and closer to Russia and China, since its rival Morocco is supported by NATO and Israel.
Considering that Chad also denied France the use of its territory for action against Niger, Paris only has two options: (1) deploy inside Nigeria (which so far hosts no such French bases) or nearby Francophone ECOWAS countries like Benin (but flying from France across the sea all the way to the Gulf of Guinea is very painful, requiring repeated refueling) or (2) wait till the war expands to Mali and deploy in Senegal and Mauritania, both of which are pro-intervention (Senegal part of ECOWAS and committed to it but also in deep internal political pre-revolutionary trouble since months ago).