The Government was on Tuesday drawing up plans for the possible evacuation of Britons from coup-hit Niger after France said it would get its own citizens out of the former French colony.
The Foreign Office urged UK citizens in Niger to register online or on a special phone line, replicating the system used before 2,450 Britons were airlifted out of war-torn Sudan over eight days from late April.
“Protests can be violent and the atmosphere can change quickly and without warning,” the Foreign Office said in updated travel guidance for Niger. “We advise British nationals to remain indoors.”
It is understood that UK diplomats are staying in close contact with France after the Foreign Office appealed to Britons in Niger to register their name, location and contact details. Officials were unable to say how many Britons are currently in Niger.
Paris said there were just under 1,200 French nationals in Niger in 2022. It announced the evacuation after rioters in Niamey targeted the French embassy and burned French flags.
“Protests can be violent and the atmosphere can change quickly and without warning,” the Foreign Office said in updated travel guidance for Niger. “We advise British nationals to remain indoors.”
The French evacuation was expected to start Tuesday afternoon.
The German foreign ministry urged its citizens in Niger to take up an offer from the French authorities to join their evacuation flights.
"We can confirm that our French colleagues have offered, within the limits of available capacity, to take German nationals on board their flights from Niger," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it advised "all German nationals in Niamey to accept this offer."
The French foreign ministry said its evacuation would begin “very soon”, after a junta overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum in Niger last Wednesday.
The region’s seventh military takeover in less than three years has pitted Niger's former Western allies against the likes of Russia and other junta leaders in the country’s neighbours.
France has had troops in the region for a decade helping to fight an Islamist insurgency, but faces accusations of meddling in Niger’s internal politics.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said that Sunday’s protest in front of the embassy and ensuing accusations that French soldiers shot at the crowd - which Paris denies - "have all the usual ingredients of destabilisation, the Russian-African way".
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, last week welcomed the coup in Niger, and said his forces were available to restore order.
But the Kremlin said on Monday that the situation in Niger was "cause for serious concern" and called for a swift return to constitutional order.
Some pro-junta supporters in Niamey have waved flags in praise of Vladimir Putin and denouncing France, telling the international community to stay away.
The West African regional body ECOWAS announced travel and economic sanctions against Niger on Sunday, and said it would use force if the coup leaders do not reinstate Mr Bazoum within a week.
But the military governments of Mali and Burkina Faso late on Monday issued a joint statement declaring that "any military intervention against Niger will be considered as a declaration of war” against them as well.
The two countries also denounced the ECOWAS economic sanctions as "illegal, illegitimate and inhumane", and refused to apply them.
