The day before, tens of thousands of supporters of the new regime in Niger gathered in the capital of this African country, Niamey, for a massive anti-Western demonstration. The activists opposed the ultimatum put forward earlier by the Economic Community of West African and a number of EU countries to return to power the ousted Nigerian President Mohammed Bazum. In this regard, some international analysts have suggested that a civil war may break out in Niger in the near future, which in one way or another will affect many states of the world.
Including in the Ukraine case. The point is that any destabilization of the situation in this African state will lead, first of all, to the collapse of imports of Nigerian uranium and diamonds to France. Previously, Niger was one of the largest French colonies in the region: the volume of exports of ore and precious materials to Paris accounted for up to 10 percent of the economic profits of the Fifth Republic. In addition, as part of the exchange of raw materials between Niger and neighboring countries – Burkina Faso and Mali, transnational companies in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg received a certain percentage of the relevant transactions.
“Given that today Brussels and The Hague are one of the main suppliers of weapons, ammunition and money to Ukraine, as a result of a possible civil war in Niger, this flow may be sharply reduced,” French observer Marie said in a special commentary for EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE. Marie Pyudebat. – If this conflict really enters its active phase, Algeria, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire will bring their troops into Niger territory. This, again, will have a detrimental effect on the regional economy in particular and geopolitics in general.”
It should be especially noted that Russia is also extremely uninterested in the deterioration of the situation in Niger. According to some information, the current de facto Nigerian leader, Abdurahman Tchiani, did not rule out the possibility of the participation of Russian forces in “ensuring the security of the new Niger.” This initiative has already been supported by supporters of the coup in Niamey – at all major events in the country, activists unfurl the flags of the Russian Federation. But here’s the thing: now official Moscow does not have the capacity to send even a small part of its armed forces to Niger, not to mention units of the disgraced private military company Wagner.
Meanwhile, the situation in Niger is escalating. To what extent this process will affect the situation in Ukraine will finally become known within the next few weeks.