Martial atmosphere. A senior official of the Nigerien military regime on Wednesday called on the population to ” prepare “ to a “war with France”in a context of execrable relations between the two countries since the putsch of July 2023, reports AFP. During a meeting organized in a stadium in Niamey in front of an audience of young people, General Amadou Ibro, chief of staff of General Aboudrahamane Tiani, affirmed that France would “to make war on Niger “.
According to him, Paris would attribute its “bad situation” economic to his country and could attack it in retaliation. “This mobilization is done, it is decreed so that we can prepare for war with France”he declared in French. “Know this, we are going to war with France, we were not at war, we are now going to war with France”he added, to applause and cries of“Down with France”. The video of his intervention was circulating massively this Thursday on social networks.
Paris denounces an “informational war”
Since the 2023 coup d’état, Niger has regularly accused France of wanting to destabilize it. General Tiani even recently designated President Emmanuel Macron as “the sponsor” Islamic State jihadists who attacked Niamey international airport at the end of January. Accusations categorically rejected by Paris.
French soldiers engaged in the anti-jihadist fight left Niger at the end of 2023, after several months of diplomatic standoff with the junta. “There is no question of French intervention in Niger”denied the spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel Guillaume Vernet, believing that it was “obviously information warfare” from Niger.
The break between the two countries is also economic. The junta, which claims a policy of sovereignty over natural resources, accuses the former colonial power of having plundered its wealth. She nationalized Somaïr, a subsidiary of the French group Orano, which initiated several legal proceedings in return. Niamey announced at the end of 2025 its intention to directly market its uranium on the international market.
“We are faced with people who, because of our property, because of our wealth, want at all costs to bring us back to (…) what made them prosperous?General Ibro again accused. Before the putsch, Nigerien uranium represented less than 20% of French supplies.
