By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Arising from the coup last week in which President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted by the presidential guards unit of the Niger army, the United States says it’s not considering evacuating its citizens from the West African country at the moment.
The White House on Tuesday while citing a lack of immediate danger after the coup noted that Washington is not joining its European allies including France in evacuating its citizens.
Washington is “certainly aware of efforts by France and other European nations to evacuate their citizens. At the same time, we don’t have any indications of direct threats to US citizens or to our facilities, so we have not changed our posture with respect to our presence in Niger at this time,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby said the White House still sees a “window” for diplomacy to resolve the Niger crisis but added that “we’re monitoring it literally by the hour.”
“We do continue to urge American citizens that are in Niger to make sure safety is their first priority,” he said.
At the moment, at least 1,000 US troops are stationed in Niger, where they were helping the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, combat a regional Islamist insurgency.
Kirby also said the US military in Niger was not taking part in the European airlifts.
“There’s been no decision to use them in any way to support evacuation efforts by other countries,” he said, and there has been “no decision made about pre-positioning any additional forces in or nearby.”
“If we have to make adjustments, we’ll make adjustments,” he said. “We’re just not there.”
Following Bazoum’s ouster, head of the presidential guards unit, General Abdourahamane Tchiani has declared himself the country’s leader, attracting the support of the military.
This has however rattled regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that has denounced the coup, threatening a military action if Bazoum is not reinstated in 7 days, a decision reached in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Sunday.
