The leaders in charge of Niger said that the French soldiers still in the country need to leave by December 22nd.
The junta said that the 157 troops left are mostly from logistics teams. They announced this in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). It said that 1,346 French soldiers have already gone home.
France and Niger have been having problems since the coup on 26 July. General Abdourahmane Tchiani led the coup and removed the president, Mohamed Bazoum, who was elected by the people and was a friend of France.
In October, France started bringing its soldiers back home from Niger. The leaders told the French to go away because they thought the French were trying to make President Bazoum come back by using force.
The military leaders also said they want to stop some old agreements with Paris related to the military and economy.
Niger was thought to be one of the West’s few friends in the Sahel area in the fight against terrorism.
France’s power in the area has been getting weaker because there have been a lot of coups in some of the countries that used to be its colonies.
More update on this story soon…
