In the context of violence against the French Embassy and the closure of Niger’s airspace, at President Macron’s request the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for the Armed Forces launched an operation to evacuate French and foreign nationals who wished to leave the country.

On Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 August, our embassy in Niamey, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs’ Crisis and Support Centre and the Ministry for the Armed Forces’ Planning and Conduct of Operations Centre evacuated a total of 1,079 people, including 577 French nationals. This evacuation operation was led by French military aircraft.

France also evacuated nationals from 50 other countries, particularly in Europe (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Romania, Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Georgia and the United Kingdom), Africa (Benin, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, Chad, Congo, Ethiopia, Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Mauritania, Togo and Tunisia), America (the United States, Canada, Brazil, Colombia and the Bahamas), Asia (India, Japan, Vietnam and South Korea), Oceania (Australia) and the Middle East (Lebanon and Turkey).

The Ministry of the Interior and Overseas France also contributed to this operation, through the work of emergency services doctors, who provided medical assistance on one flight, and the Ministry of Health, which was involved in dealing with medical cases on arrival.

In a spirit of European solidarity and with the aim of offering European countries the possibility of enabling those of their nationals who so wished to benefit from the flights it put on, France took the initiative of activating the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism (EU CPM). From the outset it included European nationals in the planning of evacuation operations.

To coordinate the operation, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs’ Crisis and Support Centre, which set up a crisis unit on Sunday 30 July, has been in permanent contact with our nationals on the ground and with all our partners. Our armed forces’ military assets, mobilized to ensure the safety of nationals, also helped make these evacuations a success.

[diplomatie.gouv.fr]