BREAKING NEWS: France violates airspace, frees terrorists, Niger’s junta alleges

Niger’s military junta has accused French troops of breaching the country’s airspace, freeing terrorists, and plotting to unsettle the West African nation.

The accusation was released by the junta’s spokesman, Col Amadou Adbramane, Wednesday amid growing tensions in the country after the military coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.

Anadolu Agency reported that a statement was issued on national television, as the junta asserted that a French aircraft had violated Niger’s airspace.

The spokesperson added the French troops were nursing that a bigger plot to destablise the troubled West African country.

Abdramane also suggested that French forces might have ulterior motives to create an atmosphere of generalised insecurity to “discredit” the caretaker government calling itself the National Council for the Safeguard of the Country (CNSP).

Abdramane added that the French government had freed 16 terrorists who were incarcerated, asserting that the freed assailants planned an attack Wednesday on its National Guard position.

The attack targeted Niger’s National Guard position in the Tillaberi region, which borders Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin, the spokesperson alleged in a statement on national television.

The attack has prompted Niger’s authorities to declare a state of high alertness across the country. The CNSP alerted the national and international community of “events of extreme gravity in progress in Niger,” attributable to the French military forces, the junta spokesman said.

The junta, which recently appointed a transitional prime minister, has been keen to assert its authority promising to ensure Niger’s stability.

France, a former colonial power in Niger, which has maintained a military presence in the Sahel region as part of counterterrorism efforts, however, denied the allegations.