Niamey, Sept. 5 — Niger’s military-led government has accused France of orchestrating a failed mutiny that left soldiers dead and shots ringing out near the presidential palace, an explosive charge Paris has flatly rejected as “pure fantasy.”
The government’s Council of Ministers said the August 29 assault on Base 101, a strategic military facility at Niamey’s international airport, “had been incited by a vast network of accomplices led by France.” Government spokesperson Soumana Boubacar went further, alleging the operation was “instigated and sustained by a vast network of collusion headed by the French regime,” and claiming “traitorous and renegade elements” were promised rewards to carry out President Emmanuel Macron’s “unfulfilled ambitions” in Niger.
During the attempted uprising, soldiers opened fire on their commanders, struck at the presidential palace and disrupted state broadcasting, in violence that left at least five dead, including three presidential guards. Niger’s army, backed by Russian Africa Corps paramilitary fighters, retook the base within a day, with dozens of soldiers reported killed or arrested out of what officials say were hundreds involved.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot dismissed the claims outright. “There never was any intention, nor means that France would have mobilised,” he said, adding that Niger’s government was simply repeating its habit of blaming Paris for events it had no hand in.
Niger’s government said it had compiled “a substantial body of evidence” and threatened to pursue the matter through international courts, though it has not publicly detailed that evidence. Officials have since widened their accusations beyond France, with state television airing footage of an air force captain naming Benin, Chad, Ivory Coast and the regional bloc ECOWAS as alleged backers of the plot. Benin has denied any involvement.
The standoff is the latest flashpoint in a relationship that has been unraveling since General Abdourahamane Tiani seized power in a 2023 coup and pivoted Niger toward Russian military support, severing decades of security cooperation with France. Tensions have deepened further after Niger’s seizure of uranium assets belonging to French nuclear firm Orano, leaving Niamey and Paris locked in an increasingly bitter war of words with no resolution in sight.