The first plane carrying 262 civilians evacuated from Niger lands in Paris
The first French plane with evacuees from Niger arrived at the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at dawn on Wednesday with 262 people on board, including 12 babies.
The plane, an Airbus A330, is the first to arrive of the three that France sent to Niger on Tuesday at the start of the evacuation of French and European citizens who want to leave the African country after last week's military coup. .
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, had previously indicated that almost all the evacuees on this first flight are French, and other official sources detailed that there were also some Portuguese, Belgian, Nigerien and Lebanese.
In Niger, a former French colony, some 600 French citizens have expressed their desire to leave the country after the military coup that on Wednesday of last week overthrew the constitutional president, Mohamed Bazoum.
In addition, citizens of several European countries have also expressed their desire to be evacuated, the French Foreign Ministry said.
The evacuation operation will continue as long as there is a flow of people who wish to leave, be they French, European or other nationalities with the right to enter France, sources from the military General Staff told the press on Tuesday.
Instead, they assured that the departure of the approximately 1,500 French soldiers who are currently stationed in Niger to support that country in the fight against jihadist terrorism “is not planned.”
The French government decided to evacuate after the violent demonstration last Sunday in front of the French embassy in Niamey, with the aim of guaranteeing the safety of its citizens given the lack of control of the situation by the military coup leaders.
However, the sources assured that “there are no French soldiers on the streets” of Nyamey and the evacuees arrive at the airport “by their own means”.. The Crisis Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has organized, together with the Red Cross, a reception system for evacuees, with temporary shelters for those who may need them.