France and Italy made arrangements on Tuesday August 1, to evacuate their citizens and other Europeans from Niger, in response to a coup that occurred six days ago. The coup toppled one of the last pro-Western leaders in the jihadist-plagued Sahel region and sparked anti-French demonstrations.

France and Italy prepared on Tuesday to fly out their citizens and other Europeans from Niger, six days after a coup toppled one of the last pro-Western leaders in the jihadist-plagued Sahel and stoked anti-French demonstrations.

In the region’s third military takeover in as many years, President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by his own guard, triggering alarm bells in France, Niger’s former colonial power and traditional ally.

After hostile crowds gathered on Sunday outside the French embassy and Niger accused France of plotting to intervene militarily, Paris said Tuesday it would withdraw citizens and offered to evacuate other Europeans as well.

The German ministry urged “all German nationals” to take up the French evacuation offer. It said that fewer than 100 German civilians were believed to be in Niger.

In Rome, the government said it was putting on a “special flight” for Italians wishing to leave the country. Around 90 Italians are in Niamey, out of nearly 500 across the country, it said.

The French foreign ministry said about 600 French nationals were in Niger.

The West African bloc ECOWAS on Sunday slapped sanctions on Niger and warned it may use force as it gave the coup leaders a week to reinstate Bazoum.

The following day, the junta accused France of seeking to “intervene militarily”, a charge which drew a French denial, while junta-ruled Mali and Burkina Faso warned any military intervention in Niger would be a “declaration of war” against them.

The events are unfolding in one of the world’s poorest and most unstable countries, a vast semi-desert nation that had already experienced four coups since independence in 1960.

Guards chief General Abdourahamane Tiani has declared himself leader, but his claim has been rejected internationally, from ECOWAS, the African Union and the UN to France, the United States and the European Union.

According to Bazoum’s PNDS party, the junta has arrested the country’s oil, mining, interior and transport ministers, the head of the PNDS’s executive committee, and a former defense minister.

Khalil Wakim, with AFP