AFRICA

French embassy in Niger closed until further notice

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TEHRAN, Jan. 02 (MNA) – The French Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that its embassy in Niger has been closed until further notice and will continue to operate from Paris.
Paris on Tuesday said its embassy in Niger was now closed, confirming previously announced plans, after relations between the two countries deteriorated following a military coup in the African country, Reuters reported.
“For five months, our embassy has been severely hampered, making it impossible to carry out its missions,” a spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
The French army has been forced to completely withdraw its troops from Niger after French President Emmanuel Macron's arrogant refusal to recognize the military-led transitional government in the country.
The people of Niger also held countless demonstrations demanding the ejection of French troops from the West African country. In a further escalation of the situation, Macron has decided to indefinitely close the country's embassy in Niamey. This came after the expulsion of the French ambassador as well as the denunciation of defense agreements by the transitional authorities.
Niger was one of the last reliable French partners in the region and therefore the withdrawal of troops is a blow to this imperialist power. After the departure of French troops and diplomats, the people of Niger are now taking on France's economic interests in the country and are demanding the cancellation of exploitative uranium mining agreements with French companies. The events in Niger constitute a chain of disgraceful events for France in the Sahel in recent years.

rmed groups kill 113 people in series of attacks across central Nigeria

Armed groups have killed more than 100 people in a string of attacks targeting towns across central Nigeria, another deadly episode in a region with persistent religious and ethnic tensions.

Local officials on Monday said the toll of the weekend attacks by armed groups, sometimes called ”,bandits has risen to 113, increasing sharply from the government’s initial count of 16.

Nigerian authorities say armed groups known as ‘bandits’ hit 20 communities and injure more than 300 people.