Hundreds of people were evacuated from Niger on flights to Paris and Rome. Among them there are also Bulgarian citizens. The withdrawal of those wishing to evacuate after last week’s military coup continues today.
Meanwhile, the junta announced that it is opening the land and air borders of the country with five bordering countries, reported France Presse, quoted by BTA. The news came a week after the coup in the country.
Borders with Algeria, Libya, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso are open, the junta said in a statement on Niger’s national television.
At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris late last night, the first French plane arrived, evacuating 262 people, most of them French citizens, from the capital of Niger, France Press reported. Among the evacuees were a dozen babies.
Among the people on board, in addition to the French, there were Belgians, Portuguese, Nigerians, Ethiopians and Lebanese.
A second flight evacuated French, Nigerians, Germans, Belgians, Canadians, Americans, Austrians and Indians.
French authorities plan to complete the evacuation by noon today. A total of four evacuation flights are planned.
A plane with dozens of people landed in Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced, quoted by DPA and BTA. According to the Italian agency ANSA, there were a total of 87 people on board the evacuation flight, including 46 Italian citizens, 21 Americans, four Bulgarians and two Austrians. According to Tajani, there are about a hundred Italians in Niger.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken discussed the situation in Niger with the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Haki Mahamat, Reuters reported. The two also discussed the development of the situation in Sudan, the State Department said in a statement.
In their phone conversation, they stressed the shared priority of getting Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, freed and restored to power, and stressed that there can be no military solution to the crisis in Sudan.
2023-08-02 05:53:35
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