However, France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said students, researchers and artists already in France “are welcome”, and will be able to continue their activities and keep their funding.
In an increasingly tense standoff, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France will not comply with the demand made last Friday by Niger's junta that its ambassador leave the West African country within 48 hours.
The leaders of a military coup who took power in Niger in late July have announced they are cutting military ties with France, which has around 1,500 troops stationed in its former West African colony fighting jihadist insurgents in the region, while the junta also dismissed the Nigerien ambassador to France.
The July putsch in Niger has placed France, the former colonial ruler, in an impasse with regard to its use of the country as a base for operations against armed jihadist insurgents in the Sahel region. With around 1,500 troops stationed in Niger, which Paris turned to last year as its principal West African ally after being forced to withdraw its military from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, the outcome of the present standoff with the new junta is uncertain. Rémi Carayol reports on how the explosive situation follows a series of blunders in France’s strategy in West Africa, where its presence has become increasingly unpopular.
As tensions mount in Niger, where supporters of last week's coup attacked the French embassy on Sunday, Paris is hoping to begin flights to evacuate its nationals, and those of other European Union countries, on Tuesday.
France has firmly denied accusations by the leaders of last week's military coup in Niger that it is planning military intervention to reinstate the West African country's deposed president Mohamed Bazoum.
"Anyone attacking French nationals, the army, diplomats or French bases would see France retaliate immediately and intractably," the Elysée Palace warned in a statement.
French journalist Olivier Dubois, 48, who was kidnapped in northern Mali by jihadists in April 2021, and American aid worker Jeffery Woodke, 62, who was abducted in Niger in October 2016, were both released on Monday, when they appeared at a press conference in Niger's capital, Niamey.
France classified all of Niger except the capital Niamey as red under its colour-coded security advice after six young French aid workers were among eight killed in a suspected jihadist raid on August 9th.
Jean Castex said it was likely the 'same hatred, the same cowardice, the same inhumanity that was at work in Niger and at the Bataclan', a reference to the Paris music venue attacked in 2015 by terrorists.
Six French tourists, along with their driver and guide, are reported to have been shot dead by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles in a suspected terrorist attack during a safari in Niger, which lies in a region of West Africa where Boko Haram and groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State operate.
French President Emmanuel Macron has held a summit in Pau, south-west France, with leaders of five West African states engaged alongside France in fighting jihadist forces in the Sahel when he announced a further 220 French troops would be sent to the region to join their 4,500 colleagues already on the ground and the creation of a joint command structure with regional states.
