Niger blames France for inciting failed mutiny, Paris denies involvement

Niger has blamed France for inciting last week’s thwarted military mutiny, according ‌to a government statement read on television on Friday and cited by Reuters and AFP.

On August 29, disgruntled soldiers attacked a strategic army base in Niamey and fired shots near the presidential palace. But the army and its Russian paramilitary allies eventually neutralised the mutiny.

The unrest killed three members of the presidential guard, according to Niger's Foreign Affairs Ministry. AFP reported a total number of five deaths, including civilians.

On Friday, Niger’s Council of Ministers said it had concluded that the attack had been incited by ‌a ⁠vast network of accomplices led by France, Niger's former colonial power.

"A substantial body of evidence has been compiled regarding this attack, and Niger ​reserves the ​right to ⁠bring the matter before international courts," the government said in the ​statement quoted by Reuters

In response, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot denied any involvement of France in the attack.

"These are nothing but pure fantasies," Barrot told French radio station RFI on Saturday. "All of this is, as usual, a way of wrongly blaming France for something it is simply not responsible for."

According to RFI, on Tuesday already, a Nigerian military official had appeared on television to accuse several states, including France, Ivory Coast and Benin, of supporting the mutiny.

Like its fellow junta-run Sahel neighbours in Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger has turned its back on Paris since the 2023 coup that brought General Abdourahamane Tiani to power.

All three have sought closer ties with Russia in tackling the region's deadly jihadist conflict, which has continued to rage unabated.