After weeks of tension between Paris and the post-coup government in the West African nation, which sought his removal, the French ambassador to Niger left the capital Niamey early on Wednesday.
“The ambassador and six colleagues left Niamey around 4:00 am (0300 GMT),” a diplomatic source from the French embassy said.
A source in the interior ministry of the Niger verified the flight’s departure and stated that it was bound for Chad.
Two months prior, a coup in Niger led to the removal of the country’s pro-Paris president and a deterioration in relations between France and its former colony. Sylvain Itte, France’s ambassador to Niger, will go “in the next hours,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a television interview on Sunday. Macron would not provide further information.
The military authorities in Niger, who deposed Mohamed Bazoum, the country’s democratically elected president, on July 26, applauded the declaration but said they were waiting for official action to be taken in response.
Following their overthrow of Bazoum and removal of the envoy’s diplomatic immunity and visa, they had instructed Itte to depart the country.
However, despite a 48-hour deadline to leave set in August, he remained in position since the French government refused to abide by it or recognize the legitimacy of the military authority.
Paris had claimed that the envoy could only be expelled by Bazoum’s overthrown government.
Itte, who was born in 1959 in Bamako, the capital of Mali, has served as ambassador to Niger for a year.
He has 35 years of diplomatic experience and has served as ambassador to Angola and Uruguay.
