Agence France-Presse:
Niger’s land and air borders with five border countries have reopened, about a week after they were closed following a coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum, one of the putschists announced on national television on Tuesday.
“The land and air borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali and Chad have reopened as of today,” he said.
All land and air borders with Niger were closed last Wednesday, on the evening of the coup.
This announcement came a few hours after the first operation carried out by France to evacuate its citizens from the country.
The first French plane carrying 262 people evacuated from Niger landed at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport on Tuesday night, shortly after 01:30 (23:30 GMT), a source at the airport confirmed to AFP.
“There are 262 people on board the Airbus A330, including dozens of children,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told AFP on Tuesday evening, explaining that “almost all the passengers are citizens.”
Paris said that its decision was due to “violence against our embassy” on Sunday during an anti-French demonstration, as well as due to “the closure of the airspace that leaves our citizens without the possibility of leaving the country by their own means.”
The decision to reopen the borders with five neighboring countries comes a few days before the end of a deadline to restore constitutional order in Niger, which was given Sunday by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which also did not rule out the use of “force” if this deadline was not respected.