Coup Backers Rally Across Niger

Thousands of people rallied Thursday across Niger to show support for the coup that toppled democratically elected leader Mohamed Bazoum as US President Joe Biden demanded his immediate release

Niamey (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Aug, 2023 ) :Thousands of people rallied Thursday across Niger to show support for the coup that toppled democratically elected leader Mohamed Bazoum as US President Joe Biden demanded his immediate release.

Demonstrators in the heart of the capital Niamey, some brandishing giant Russian flags, chanted anti-French slogans at a protest which wrapped up peacefully to mark the anniversary of the west African nation's 1960 independence from France.

The crowd shouted "Down with France", "Long live Russia, long live (Vladimir) Putin".

AFP journalists saw that police blocked access to the French embassy, after Paris had urged the junta to "fully guarantee" the safety of embassies in Niamey ahead of the demonstrations.

A week after the coup, European citizens have been evacuating from Niger, which has had a key role in French and Western strategies to combat a jihadist insurgency that has plagued Africa's Sahel region since 2012.

Protester Issiaka Hamadou said it was "only security that interests us", irrespective of whether it came from "Russia, China, Turkey, if they want to help us".

"We just don't want the French, who have been looting us since 1960 -- they've been there ever since and nothing has changed," he said.

Several thousand people also took to the streets of other cities including Agadez in the north and Filingue, where junta head General Abdourahamane Tiani is from.