Niger Coup

john0496 said:
France said yesterday it will seriously study a military assistance for CDEAO if requested. It's a kind of picking one side though.
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That's just creating more problems. It's way worse.

Now you want to split West Africa into two groups and pick CDEAO in the process. And we will then have Russia on one side and France on the other.

The alternative is to sit on the negotiation table, bring back democracy and then start working on fixing relations with the minorities.
 
www.spacewar.com

ECOWAS to finalize Niger deployment plans this week

Washington DC (UPI) Aug 17, 2021 - The defense chiefs of more than a dozen West African nations will meet this week to finalize plans for the deployment of its Standby Force to Niger, where signs that the recent ousting of its democratic government and subsequent political turmoil is...
www.spacewar.com
randomradio said:
The alternative is to sit on the negotiation table, bring back democracy and then start working on fixing relations with the minorities.
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About as effective as sitting on a park bench and 'bringing back democracy'. They didn't take power by force to negotiate it away.
 
(theturkeyanalyst, aug.23)

The Niger Coup and Turkey’s Military Industrial Complex in Africa​

(...) The combination of failed European policies, Russian military involvement, and the widespread presence of jihadist elements from al-Qaeda and the Islamic State was the state of affairs in Libya that prompted Turkey’s increasingly deeper military involvement during the previous decade and ultimately resulted in Ankara’s overt military intervention in Libya during the first half of 2020. The success of Turkey’s 2020 military intervention that reversed the Russian-supported assault on Tripoli and Ankara’s subsequent role as a security provider for the Tripoli government served as a nearby proof-of-concept for African leaders that Turkey could capably act as an alternative security provider, enabling them to sidestep the choice of either allowing Western troops on their soil or becoming entangled with Russian private military companies.​
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Libya is only one piece of the puzzle in Turkey’s multi-vectored approach to Africa, which saw Ankara open 26 embassies in Africa from 2010 to 2016, including an embassy in Libya’s southern neighbor Niger in 2012. Early into Turkey’s Libya intervention, Turkey and Niger signed a January 2020 agreement to allow Turkey to conduct exploration and mining operations. Ankara and Niamey subsequently signed a broader set of agreements on economic and defense cooperation in July 2020, including a military training cooperation agreement. Following a November 2021 arms deal, Niger received six Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 dronesand 12 Hürkuş-B air combat trainers, capable of also performing light-attack and armed reconnaissance combat missions.​
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Yet, the current level of military cooperation between Turkey and Niger, as well as with Niger’s Sahelian neighbors, does not fully reflect the significance of the region for Ankara. To understand the full impact of events in Niger and its Sahelian neighbors on Turkey’s strategic interests, one needs to look beyond Turkey’s military relations to its wider commercial investments across West Africa. Turkey has been actively engaged in developing an integrated economic architecture of manufacturing and distribution across francophone Africa stretching from the central Maghreb to coastal West Africa. It is Ankara’s initial success at creating an alternative nexus of inter-regional commercial connectivity that has engendered a fierce systemic competitionwith France. (...)​
 
(diewelt, aug.27)

EU planning new Africa mission in Gulf of Guinea — report​

The EU is set to launch a new mission in West Africa in the fall, a German newspaper has reported. The combined military-civilian operation will aim to prevent instability triggered by jihadi groups.
European Union member states have agreed to begin a mission in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, with police and soldiers deployed to Ghana, Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast, German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag reported on Sunday, citing diplomats.​
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According to the paper, the mission will aim to train and advise local security forces, help prepare for anti-terror operations, give technical support and implement confidence-building measures in the security sector.​
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The mission is to be launched after formal approval is given by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in October in Luxembourg.​
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What else did the report say about the mission?​
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The reason behind the planned mission is the EU's concern that Islamist groups "could extend their activities in West Africa from the Sahel zone toward the southern coastal countries on the Gulf of Guinea, leading to even more widespread instability in the region," Welt am Sonntag reported.​
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Militant activity from extremist groups linked to "Islamic State" and al-Qaidahave rocked countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in recent years.​
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The EU also wants to counter Russian influence in the region which has been spread through Wagner mercenaries who have supported military regimes in the Sahel.​
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Europe seeks to stem tide of instability​
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The situation was further complicated for the EU after Mali kicked out French and German forces that had been training Malian soldiers and police.​
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Benin and Ghana had already officially invited the EU to deploy the mission on their territories, according to the paper.​
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The report comes as several countries in the region have fallen under military governments following coups, the latest being on July 26 in Niger. Military juntas have also taken power in Mali and Burkina Faso.​
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The fall of Niger to junta control has been especially concerning as it had been a key ally to Western powers operating throughout the region. /end​
 
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Ashwin said:
www.aljazeera.com

French envoy to stay in Niger despite ultimatum, says Macron

Macron insists that France will not change its position in condemning the coup and offering support to Bazoum.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com

Does French have some special force ready around or something?
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no, the french special forces operating in the Saharo-Sahelian band (TF Sabre, 400 operators) were based in Burkina-Faso, but they left at the beginning of 2023, after the coup.

Thanks to the France-Niger defence agreements, France has an air base in Niamey. Some 1,100 to 1,500 operators, Mirage 2000s and Reaper drones are deployed there.
for how much longer?...
 
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Amarante said:
no, the french special forces operating in the Saharo-Sahelian band (TF Sabre, 400 operators) were based in Burkina-Faso, but they left at the beginning of 2023, after the coup.

Thanks to the France-Niger defence agreements, France has an air base in Niamey. Some 1,100 to 1,500 operators, Mirage 2000s and Reaper drones are deployed there.
for how much longer?...
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But Why do France want fight Junta?
As Far as I know, All France gets from Niger is cheap Uranium.
It is worth fighting for it or I am not seeing the bigger picture?
 
RASALGHUL said:
But Why do France want fight Junta?
As Far as I know, All France gets from Niger is cheap Uranium.
It is worth fighting for it or I am not seeing the bigger picture?
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No, we have defence agreements with the legitimate government of Niger. We don't recognise the putschists as legitimate, so as far as we're concerned they can't ask for us to leave, and what's more we have to defend the legitimate government as we did in Mali.
 
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RASALGHUL said:
But Why do France want fight Junta?
As Far as I know, All France gets from Niger is cheap Uranium.
It is worth fighting for it or I am not seeing the bigger picture?
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I don't know whether France wants to wage war on Niger. I wouldn't say that.

But France is merely being legalistic.
It has partnerships and defence agreements with the legitimate authorities.
The putschists are obviously not.

Uranium from Niger is not essential to France, which has a variety of sources of supply: Canada, Kazakhstan, Australia, and so on.

The aim of French military operations in Africa has long since ceased to be the support of authoritarian regimes favourable to France (I would date the change in French doctrine to the early 1990s).

For France, the aim since then has been to
1/ respecting bilateral defence agreements with the African countries concerned.
2/ fighting the terrorist threat (AQ/IS). North Africa (Sahara/Sahel) is Europe's "southern flank". Obviously, French military deployments have never been imposed on African countries, but have been the result of bilateral agreements.

With the French withdrawals, you can be sure that terrorism, instability, trafficking (etc) will increase. This is unfortunate. It's already happening in Mali and it's already starting in Niger.

Personally, I think that France has other priorities than Africa: "Indopac"
 
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If you guys have noticed, these coups have increased in numbers ever since India started raising its voice for Global South, Was it not Jaishanker who last year stated that resource rich nations are one of the poorest due to the present day world order.
 
vstol Jockey said:
If you guys have noticed, these coups have increased in numbers ever since India started raising its voice for Global South, Was it not Jaishanker who last year stated that resource rich nations are one of the poorest due to the present day world order.
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It's true that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and all those resource-rich Middle Eastern countries are in fact very poor. :ROFLMAO:
 
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