{"id":761614,"date":"2026-09-06T06:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/761614\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T06:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:40:22","slug":"niger-blames-france-for-inciting-failed-mutiny-paris-denies-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/761614\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger blames France for inciting failed mutiny, Paris denies involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Niger has blamed France for inciting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africanews.com\/2026\/09\/03\/thousands-rally-to-back-niger-authorities-after-thwarted-mutiny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">last week\u2019s thwarted military mutiny<\/a>, according \u200cto a government statement read on television on Friday and cited by Reuters and AFP. <\/p>\n<p>On August 29, disgruntled soldiers attacked a strategic army base in Niamey and fired shots near the presidential palace. But the army and its Russian paramilitary allies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africanews.com\/2026\/08\/31\/calm-returns-to-nigers-capital-one-day-after-failed-army-mutiny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">eventually neutralised the mutiny<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The unrest killed three members of the presidential guard, according to Niger&#8217;s Foreign Affairs Ministry. AFP reported a total number of five deaths, including civilians. <\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Niger\u2019s Council of Ministers said it had concluded that the attack had been incited by \u200ca \u2060vast network of accomplices led by France, Niger&#8217;s former colonial power. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A substantial body of evidence has been compiled regarding this attack, and Niger \u200breserves the \u200bright to \u2060bring the matter before international courts,&#8221; the government said in the \u200bstatement quoted by Reuters<\/p>\n<p>In response, French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot denied any involvement of France in the attack. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These are nothing but pure fantasies,&#8221; Barrot told French radio station RFI on Saturday. &#8220;All of this is, as usual, a way of wrongly blaming France for something it is simply not responsible for.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to RFI, on Tuesday already, a Nigerian military official had appeared on television to accuse several states, including France, Ivory Coast and Benin, of supporting the mutiny. <\/p>\n<p>Like its fellow junta-run Sahel neighbours in Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger has turned its back on Paris since the 2023 coup that brought General Abdourahamane Tiani to power.<\/p>\n<p>All three have sought closer ties with Russia in tackling the region&#8217;s deadly jihadist conflict, which has continued to rage unabated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niger has blamed France for inciting last week\u2019s thwarted military mutiny, according \u200cto a government statement read on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-761614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}