(Bloomberg) --
Thousands of protesters gathered outside a French army base in Niger’s capital Niamey over the weekend as a deadline for the foreign forces to leave was set to expire.
A Niamey court on Saturday also approved the immediate expulsion of France’s ambassador, revoking his diplomatic immunity, according to a request addressed to the court’s president.
Relations between Niger and its former colonial power France soured following a July 26 coup that enjoys growing local support. France says it doesn’t recognize those who planned and executed the takeover as legitimate leaders of the west African country.
The developments come after French President Emmanuel Macron rejected the ruling junta’s demand to recall his ambassador a month after a coup upended relations between the two former allies.
The military junta that ousted Niger President Mohamed Bazoum gave French ambassador Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country. The deadline passed on Aug. 28 without France recalling its diplomat.
France has committed acts since the July coup that “violate the Vienna convention regulating diplomatic relations, including the violation of Niger’s airspace and other acts that goes against the interests of Niger and its people,” according to the order to expel the French envoy. Itte “has refused to leave the country after he was declared persona non grata,” it said.
A junta spokesman confirmed the document.
There have been nine military coups across sub-Saharan Africa since 2020, a trend often tied to economic malaise and weak governance that in turn has fanned extremist violence.
Macron pledged to reset relations with Africa when he took office in 2017, becoming the latest French leader to to promise to end Françafrique, as the country’s post-colonial political and economic influence system on the continent is known.
