First evacuees arrive in Europe after the coup d'état in Niger

Niger completes the list of Sahel countries that are led by military commanders. The coup d'état in Niger has brought the self-styled National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland to power and has put an end to what was the last country in the region with a civilian leader. It continues the trend set by Mali and Burkina Faso, which have unsurprisingly shown their support for the coup.

In the midst of the chaos in Niger, European countries have launched a plan to evacuate all nationals residing in the country. Spain, France and Italy, among others, have already managed to bring back dozens of their citizens. In the case of Spain, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has announced on his Twitter account that "the first Spaniards have arrived from Niger, in collaboration with France", and that they continue "to work on the ground for the rest of our compatriots".

More than 70 Spaniards were in Niger when the coup broke out. For the moment, around twenty have been evacuated to Paris, where they spent the night, and are travelling to Spain today. However, some of those who are still in Niger have preferred not to request evacuation for the time being. The ministry headed by Albares appealed to those who had not been contacted by the embassy to get in touch with them so that all the Spaniards in Niger could be located.

France, for its part, has a much larger number of citizens than Spain. What was once a Gallic colony has around 600 French nationals, who are already being worked on to get them out of the country. Moreover, the French Foreign Ministry has offered to evacuate "Europeans who wish to do so", as it has demonstrated with the aid provided to Spaniards who have landed in Paris. In the case of the country presided over by Emmanuel Macron, the urgency is greater since on Sunday its own embassy was stoned, only to be accused a day later of "orchestrating a military operation to free the now ousted president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum".

Italy was another of the first European countries to put its evacuation machinery to work. Antonio Tajani, the Foreign Minister, issued a statement in which he offered the possibility of "leaving the city on a special flight to Italy" for the 100 or so Italians who are estimated to remain in Niger. Unlike the Italians and French, Germany has advised its citizens to leave the country via flights organised by France, as it has ruled out an evacuation operation of its own for the time being.

This is similar to what is happening with the staff of the EU diplomatic mission in Niger, who are not considering a large-scale operation to evacuate all the people. However, they have offered voluntary evacuation to those who wish to do so because, as EU foreign affairs spokesperson Nabila Massrali said, "we take the security of European citizens and our staff very seriously". In addition, she said, she would be monitoring "minute by minute" the development of events in the Nigerian country in the event of any possible escalation of violence.

Neighbouring countries, in an effort to find a solution, have organised a meeting of the Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff (CCDS) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). However, countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and, of course, Niger, were not represented. ECOWAS itself threatened to use force if Mohamed Bazoum's government was not restored within seven days, something that seems to be ruled out. The option of military intervention is "the last option", according to the organisation's Commissioner for Peace and Security, Abdelfatá Moussa, although he warns that "this eventuality" cannot be ruled out.