DEVELOPING: French Ambassador to Niger Held Hostage in Embassy
After President Emmanuel Macron declined the Niger junta ultimatum to withdraw the French diplomatic mission from the West African country, tensions continue to escalate as it now surfaces that France’s ambassador to Niger ‘is being held hostage in the French embassy’.
France 24 reported:
“The ambassador is living off ‘military rations’, Macron told reporters in the eastern town of Semur-en-Auxois.
‘As we speak, we have an ambassador and diplomatic staff who are literally being held hostage in the French embassy’, he said.
‘They are preventing food deliveries’, he said, in an apparent reference to Niger’s new military rulers. ‘He is eating military rations’.
Niger’s military leaders told French ambassador Sylvain Itte he had to leave the country after they overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.
