Niger Military Regime Orders Police To Expel French Ambassador Who Refused To Leave Country

The Niger Republic military regime has ordered the police to forcefully evict Ambassador Sylvain Itte, the French ambassador, from the country.

The soldiers who ousted Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum last month had given Ambassador Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country.

The deadline expired on August 28 without France recalling Itte.

French government had said it did not recognize the coup rulers as the country’s legitimate leaders.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said the ambassador would stay in the country despite the junta’s pressure.

The latest communique sent by Niger’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Itte “no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities attached to his status as a member of the diplomatic staff of the embassy.”

The document also said the diplomatic cards and visas of the ambassador’s families have been canceled.

Since ousting Niger’s democratically elected Bazoum, the junta has leveraged anti-French sentiment among the population to shore up its support.

The regional bloc, ECOWAS deployed a “standby” force and ordered it to transition Niger back to constitutional rule. The force has not yet entered Niger, and the bloc says the door remains open to dialogue but it won’t wait forever.

The junta has appointed a new government and said it would return Niger to the system of government prescribed by the constitution within three years, a timeline that ECOWAS has rejected.