In an interview granted to France 24 and RFI on Wednesday 18 December, the President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou talks about the security situation which is deteriorating day by day in his country.
"The threat is becoming more and more intense and is spreading in space," he said, ten days after the attack on the military base of Inates, in which 71 soldiers were killed.
"The situation is really worrying, not only for Niger, but also for the other countries of the Sahel and in general for all the countries of the ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States, Editor's note] , including for the countries of the Lake Chad basin, where we face the threat of Boko Haram, "he continues.
"The terrorists have strengthened, they have had heavier and more efficient equipment, they have benefited from reinforcements in training frameworks. We are told of transfers of terrorists from Syria, Iraq via Libya, where unfortunately there is no state. What happened at Inates is the consequence of all that. "
"Inates, consequence of the Libyan chaos"
While French President Emmanuel Macron is to travel to Niamey on Sunday, December 22, to attend a ceremony to pay tribute to the 71 Nigerien soldiers killed in the December 10 attack, and while the leaders of five Sahelian countries are invited to a summit on January 13 in Pau, in the south of France, Mahamadou Issoufou calls on the international community to show "solidarity with the peoples of the Sahel".
"It is the international community that has created chaos in Libya and what is happening in the Sahel is one of the consequences of Libyan chaos". "It is a duty for the international community to be alongside the people of the Sahel in this fight against terrorism", insists the Nigerien head of state, who stresses that Libya continues to be "the main source of supply in arms of terrorists ".
>> Read: "The G5 Sahel heads of state call for international support after the massacre of Inates"
Finally, Mahamadou Issoufou warns Westerners: "If the security situation deteriorates, what will happen? There will be no development, there will be no jobs for all these young people, it will fuel migration, it will affect France, Europe. I think President Macron sees that, that is what will happen if terrorism succeeds. "
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