Chanting slogans such as “out with Barkhan”, “down with France”, “long live Putin and Russia”, demonstrators marched through the streets of the capital and then took part in a rally in front of the parliament building.
Several hundred people demonstrated peacefully yesterday Sunday in the streets of Niger’s capital, Niamey, mainly against the presence of the French anti-jihadist force Barhan and in favor of Russia, an AFP journalist found.
Chanting slogans such as “out with Barkhan”, “down with France”, “long live Putin and Russia”, demonstrators marched through the streets of the capital and then took part in a rally in front of the parliament building.
Some of the demonstrators waved Russian flags and held placards with slogans hostile to France and Barkhan.
“Let the criminal French army go”, or “the colonialist military force Barhan must go”, one read on the placards of the participants in the mobilization, which took place with the permission of the municipal authority of Niamey.
About 3,000 French troops remain deployed in the Sahel — mainly in Niger, a key ally of Paris — after completing its withdrawal from Mali.
The Barhan force was ousted by the Malian military junta that seized power in 2020 and is said to have hired the Russian private military company Wagner, which Bamako denies.
In April, members of Niger’s parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of a text authorizing the deployment of foreign forces in the territory, mainly French, as part of the fight against jihadists.
“There are anti-French slogans because we demand the immediate withdrawal of the Barhan force from Niger, which violates our national sovereignty and is on its way to destabilizing the Sahel,” Seydou Abdullahi, coordinator of the M62 Movement, which organized the demonstration, told AFP.
Wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with former Burkina Faso rebel leader Thomas Sankara, he accused the former colonial power of providing “active support” to “jihadists who spread terrorism from Mali” in Niger and Burkina Faso.
Last month, the military regime in Mali accused France of supporting jihadist groups, which Paris called “offensive”.
In recent months there have been several anti-French protests in the Sahel, notably in November 2021, when a convoy of French military force Barhan was prevented from crossing into Burkina Faso and Niger.
Three protesters had been killed in Tera, in western Niger, by gunfire that was not clear whether it came from the country’s forces or those of France.
Yesterday’s demonstration was also meant to express citizens’ protest against the rising cost of living in Niger, where the recent increase in the price of household fuel was followed by a hike in the prices of basic food items. According to M62 officials, another mobilization took place yesterday in Doso, a city in the southwestern part of Niger.
Niger faces frequent and deadly attacks by jihadist groups that pledge allegiance to either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State in the Sahel in its western part and, in the southeast, by Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISIS).
The country has for years hosted foreign military bases, mainly French and American, as part of operations against jihadists in the Sahel.
RES-EMP
Read the News today and get the latest news.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News and be the first to know all the news.
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
