Niger’s leader claims Nigeria is complicit in the efforts undertaken by Paris to foment instability in the Sahel region
Niger’s transitional leader, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, has accused France of attempting to destabilize the West African country and the Sahel region by funding terrorist groups based in neighboring Nigeria and Benin.
The military ruler made the allegations in an interview with state broadcaster RTN that was published on Thursday.
France “has poured several billion CFA francs” into armed organizations, including Boko Haram, which operates in Nigeria’s Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi states, as well as within Benin, according to Tchiani.
He also accused Ahmed Abubakar Rufai, former chief of Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency, of playing a key role in training and supplying equipment to the Paris-backed militants.
‘‘In Nigeria… Ahmed Abubakar Rufai… was the focal point for training, acquisition of equipment, and financing related to terrorism,” Tchiani claimed.
Abuja has rejected the allegations, calling them “completely untrue.”
“Nigeria and Niger are related by history, culture, commerce and marriage. Nigeria has never and will never be interested in the destabilization of Niger,” Nigerian government spokesperson Mohammed Idris Malagi said in a statement on Friday.
“We urge Tchiani and the Niger junta to stop trying to create confusion, and stop trying to drive a wedge between Nigerians and Nigeriens,” he added.
Relations between Niger and France have deteriorated since General Tchiani led a coup that ousted the country’s pro-Western leader, Mohamed Bazoum, in July 2023. This turn of events has damaged ties between the Sahel nation and its West African neighbors, with the exception of Burkina Faso and Mali, which are both under military rule. The Economic Community of West African States threatened to use force against the coup leaders, with several of Niger’s neighbors, including Nigeria, the regional bloc’s current chairman, expressing a willingness to contribute troops to the Paris-backed mission.
On Wednesday, Niger’s interim leader once again cited widespread militant violence in the country as the reason for ousting Bazoum, who had “received terrorists several times at the Presidential Palace.”
He told RTN that the former president and the civilian government had “freed terrorists.”
“These authorities were acting under the injunction of France, this same France, I say it and I repeat it, which finances terrorism in the Sahel,” he insisted.
The jihadist insurgency in the Sahel region erupted in the northern part of Mali in 2012 and has since spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. According to the non-profit organization Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, attacks killed over 12,000 people, the majority of whom were civilians, in 2023.
The military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have severed defense ties with some previous partners, including France and the US, accusing them of failing to end the decade-long violence. The three former French colonies have also recently accused Ukraine of supporting terrorism in the Sahel after officials in Kiev allegedly provided intelligence to rebels for an ambush in late July that killed scores of Malian soldiers, as well as Russian Wagner Group contractors.
