Keypoints:
- UN speech alleges France backs terrorists
- Calls for recognition of colonial crimes
- Claims Paris blocks Niger’s development
NIGER’S interim prime minister, Lamine Zeine Ali Mahaman, has accused France of using terrorism to destabilise the Sahel nation and demanded that Paris ‘remember and recognise its crimes’ dating back to 1899.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, Mahaman alleged that France has pursued ‘a subversive underhand plan to destabilise my country’ since French troops were expelled from Niger in 2023. He claimed the former colonial power was ‘training, financing and equipping terrorists’ and fostering inter-ethnic conflict across the Sahel.
Allegations of disinformation and economic sabotage
Mahaman told delegates that France was running a campaign of ‘disinformation and intoxication’ aimed at discrediting Niger’s institutions, leaders and military. He further charged that Paris has sought to derail Niger’s development by discouraging investors and systematically voting against Niger at the African Development Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
‘This consists in particular of France’s hateful desire to scuttle all our development projects,’ he said, adding that Paris was fuelling political tensions between Niger and neighbouring states.
Colonial legacy and violent history
The prime minister framed the crisis in Niger and the wider Sahel as rooted in unresolved colonial legacies. He cited the notorious Voulet–Chanoine Mission of 1898–99, a French military expedition that unleashed mass killings and torture in Nigerien towns such as Tera, Djoundjou and Zinder.
‘Nigeriens have never forgotten the unprecedented violence that characterised the colonial occupation,’ Mahaman declared, recounting atrocities including mass executions, sexual violence and the extermination of entire communities.
He accused French forces of killing demonstrators in Tera on November 27, 2021, and claimed that on March 1, 2025, 44 Muslim worshippers were ‘executed in cold blood whilst praying’ in Fambita.
Uranium exploitation and ECOWAS tension
Mahaman also denounced decades of uranium extraction, saying it brought Niger ‘nothing but misery, pollution, rebellion, corruption and desolation and to the French prosperity and power’. He warned of a potential military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which he alleged was being exploited by France to maintain influence in Niger.
‘France’s control over Nigerien political life and the presence of French troops in Niger, until July 26, 2023, show that France has always considered Niger as part of its territory or even its property,’ he said.
Commission to document abuses
To address what he called a ‘dark period in its history’, Mahaman announced that Niger has formed a commission of experts to document colonial-era abuses and resource exploitation.
‘On behalf of my country, Niger, I solemnly ask France to remember and recognise its crimes,’ he said, pledging that Niger will continue to resist external interference and ‘combat terrorists and their backers until we achieve ultimate victory’.
The French government has not yet publicly responded to Mahaman’s UN address, which was first reported by TRT World.
