PARIS (Reuters) – Protesters in Niger blocked a French navy convoy on Saturday shortly after it crossed the border from Burkina Faso, the place it had been caught for every week attributable to demonstrations towards the previous colonial ruler there, France’s military stated.
French troopers and Nigerien navy police fired warning pictures to forestall protesters from approaching their automobiles, earlier than the convoy was in a position to proceed on its method towards the capital Niamey, stated military spokesperson Colonel Pascal Ianni.
Anger about France’s navy presence in its former colonies has been rising in Niger, Burkina Faso and different nations in West Africa’s Sahel area the place France has hundreds of troops to combat native associates of al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Final weekend, a whole bunch of individuals within the Burkinabe metropolis of Kaya blocked French armoured automobiles and logistics vehicles, protesting towards the failure of French troops to cease escalating violence by Islamist militants.
The convoy, which is on its method from Ivory Coast to northern Mali, was lastly in a position to go away Burkina Faso on Friday.
It bumped into new protests lower than 30 km (19 miles) throughout the border in western Niger city of Tera, the place it had stopped to spend the evening, Ianni instructed Reuters.
“Protesters tried to pillage and seize the vehicles,” Ianni stated. “There have been warning pictures by the Nigerien gendarmes and French troopers.”
Video shared by an area official confirmed the protesters, largely younger males, shouting “Down with France!” as black smoke rose from a burning barricade.
France intervened in Mali in 2013 to beat again militants who had seized the desert north, earlier than deploying troopers throughout the Sahel. Whereas it has killed many high jihadist leaders, violence has continued to accentuate and unfold within the area.
Within the demonstrations in Burkina Faso and elsewhere, protesters have cited conspiracy theories that France is secretly supporting the militants to justify its continued navy presence in its former colonies.
(Reporting by John Irish in Paris and Boureima Balima in Niamey; writing by Aaron Ross; modifying by Clelia Oziel)
