NIAMEY
\nThousands of people rallied on Thursday across Niger to show support for the coup that toppled democratically elected leader Mohamed Bazoum as US President Joe Biden demanded his immediate release.
\nDemonstrators in the heart of the capital Niamey, some brandishing giant Russian flags, chanted anti-French slogans at a protest which wrapped up peacefully to mark the anniversary of the west African nation\u2019s 1960 independence from France.
\nThe crowd shouted \u201cDown with France\u201d, \u201cLong live Russia, long live (Vladimir) Putin\u201d.
\nAFP journalists saw that police blocked access to the French embassy, after Paris had urged the junta to \u201cfully guarantee\u201d the safety of embassies in Niamey ahead of the demonstrations.
\nA week after the coup, European citizens have been evacuating from Niger, which has had a key role in French and Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued Africa\u2019s Sahel region since 2012.
\nProtester Issiaka Hamadou said it was \u201conly security that interests us\u201d, irrespective of whether it came from \u201cRussia, China, Turkiye, if they want to help us\u201d.
\n\u201cWe just don\u2019t want the French, who have been looting us since 1960 \u2014 they\u2019ve been there ever since and nothing has changed,\u201d he said.
\nSeveral thousand people also took to the streets of other cities including Agadez in the north and Filingue, where junta head General Abdourahamane Tiani is from.
\n\u2018One coup too many\u2019
\nThe clock is also ticking down on Sunday\u2019s ultimatum from West African bloc ECOWAS for coup leaders to restore Bazoum to power within a week or face the possible \u201clast resort\u201d of military intervention.
\nSenegal said on Thursday it would send soldiers to join ECOWAS if it decided to intervene militarily in Niger.
\n\u201cIt is one coup too many,\u201d said Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall.
\nNiger is the fourth member of the group to undergo a putsch since 2020.
\nBazoum has been held by the coup plotters with his family since July 26, prompting Biden to call for his immediate release on Thursday, urging the \u201cpreservation of Niger\u2019s hard-earned democracy\u201d.
\nBritain and the United States have announced the pulling back of embassy personnel in Niger as a precaution.
\nEconomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders have imposed trade and financial sanctions, with Nigeria cutting off the electricity supplies that account for some 70 per cent of Niger\u2019s grid.
\nWest African military chiefs were meeting in Nigeria\u2019s capital Abuja on Thursday to discuss the possibility of military intervention if diplomacy fails.
\nAs tensions rise across the region, an ECOWAS team headed by former Nigerian leader Abdulsalami Abubakar was also in Niger for talks.
\nNigeria, West Africa\u2019s pre-eminent military and economic power, is the current ECOWAS chair and has vowed a firm line against coups that have proliferated across the region since 2020.
\nJunta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso, however, have warned any military intervention in their neighbour would be tantamount to a \u201cdeclaration of war\u201d against them.
\nAnti-French sentiment in the region has continued to rise, often whipped up by Russia which over the last years has taken an increasingly prominent presence via the Wagner mercenary group.
\nA French diplomatic source said there was \u201cno evidence that Russia played a role in the coup\u201d in Niger, but that it had an \u201copportunistic attitude\u201d which meant it could seek to capitalise on events.
\nPublicly, Russia has called for \u201curgent national dialogue\u201d in Niger, warning that threats of intervention \u201cwill not help ease tensions\u201d.
\n\u2018Refuse to give in\u2019
\nBazoum, 63, was feted in 2021 after winning elections that ushered in Niger\u2019s first-ever peaceful transition of power.
\nHe took the helm of a country burdened by four previous coups since independence.
\nBut after surviving two attempted putsches, Bazoum was overthrown on July 26 when members of his own guard detained him at the presidency.
\nTheir commander, Tiani, has declared himself leader, but his claim has been condemned internationally.
\nIn a televised address Wednesday, Tiani rejected the international sanctions imposed and said he \u201crefused to give in to any threat\u201d.
\nFrance still has around 1,500 troops in Niger, where it refocused its anti-jihadist mission after pulling out of Mali and Burkina Faso last year.
\nAfter joining a regional revolt in northern Mali, armed Islamists advanced into Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and now carry out sporadic attacks on fragile states on the Gulf of Guinea.
\nThe impact has contributed to army takeovers in all three Sahel countries and devastated economies at the very bottom of the world\u2019s wealth table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NIAMEY Thousands of people rallied on Thursday across Niger to show support for the coup that toppled democratically elected leader Mohamed Bazoum as US President Joe Biden demanded his immediate release. Demonstrators in the heart of the capital Niamey, some brandishing giant Russian flags, chanted anti-French slogans at a protest which wrapped up peacefully to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-347224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n