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An airspace closure ordered after an apparent attempted coup in Niger is also affecting Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr,’s withdrawal from the country..
On Wednesday evening, Nigerien Colonel Amadou Abdramane said on national television that the army has suspended all institutions and closed all borders in the West African country.
The military said it had locked down the presidential palace and detained President Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically elected president since 2021.
According to information obtained by dpa, there were no more flights to the Bundeswehr air base in Niger’s capital Niamey where about 100 German soldiers work.
According to the report, German embassy staff from the capital were also brought to the base for safety.
A German A 400 M transporter is still parked at the military airfield but the airspace is reportedly closed until August 4.
“All members of the German deployment contingent MINUSMA … based in Niamey are safe,” a spokesman for the Bundeswehr said on Thursday. He added that the situation was unclear but being monitored closely.
The German army maintains an airlift base in Niamey for military engagement in West Africa. This location is key in the ongoing withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from neighbouring Mali where Germany is involved in the UN mission, known as MINUSMA.
On Thursday, Niger’s Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou called on the country’s soldiers to release the president and settle their demands through dialogue.
“We are the legal and legitimate authorities in Niger,” Massoudou told French news channel France 24 on Thursday. He also said he had spoken to Bazoum and said the president was well.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also called for Bazoum’s “immediate release” and “for the immediate respect for the rule of law and for public safety.”
Niger, with a population of about 26 million, is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Following military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger was the last of the three neighbouring countries in the Sahel region to be led by a democratically elected government, making it a key ally of the US and the European Union in the fight against growing instability in the region.
It was only at the end of last year that the European Union decided to send a military mission to Niger to fight terrorism in the region.
But in June, the UN Security Council initiated an end to the MINUSMA mission in Mali. The UN mission, which began in 2013, will end after a transition period of six months.
Mali’s military junta, under Colonel Assimi Goïta, demanded the withdrawal of all 12,000 UN peacekeepers. The Mali junta said the UN mission had failed to keep the peace and that the peacekeepers must go.
However the military coup in Niger could significantly affect the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from neighbouring Mali, according to Sahel expert Ulf Laessing.
“The withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from Mali will become much more difficult due to the new situation,” the head of the Sahel programme of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe on Thursday.
