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Eucap headquarters in Niamey

Photo: DER SPIEGEL

The headquarters of the EU mission “Eucap Sahel” is located on a busy street in the Nigerien capital Niamey, right next to the Ministry of Justice.

Since 2012, security forces and civilian trainers from European countries have trained police officers here in the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and human trafficking.

In good times, more than 130 European trainers and experts were on site.

On Monday evening, a convoy of Nigerien police officers drove up to the ocher-colored building - but not to take part in a training session.

They had come to search the Eucap headquarters.

According to SPIEGEL's research, they spent hours breaking into every single room, the offices and the armory.

They didn't have a search warrant with them and didn't give any reasons for the raid.

They took EU protective equipment as well as small arms and ammunition.

A spokesman for Eucap Sahel Niger confirmed the search upon request.

The seized equipment was actually intended to protect the EU forces from terrorist threats.

But now their guns, vests and helmets were taken away by their partners.

The evening news on state broadcaster Télé Sahel on Thursday alleged that Eucap had stockpiled weapons in order to destabilize the country.

Images of landmines were shown that had apparently been taken in a completely different context.

Eucap Sahel Niger has not yet wanted to comment on the matter.

Diplomatic circles are horrified and reject the allegations.

The weapons were introduced properly and served to ensure the security of the mission.

The EU is in a delicate situation: it must ensure the safe withdrawal of Eucap staff, so it must not offend the junta too much.

At the same time, it cannot simply accept a diplomatic scandal of this magnitude.

The Nigerien Ministry of the Interior has not yet responded to a request from SPIEGEL.

It has been clear for some time that the EU mission will not come to an amicable end.

The military government in Niamey had already announced the end of Eucap in December; the mission was actually supposed to be phased out by June 3rd.

There is only a core team from several European countries on site in Niamey, including Germany, Romania and France.

The head of the mission, Katja Dominik, a German judge, is also still in the Nigerien capital.

She only took over the management in June last year.

A few weeks after she took office, on July 26, there was a coup in Niger.

The previous president, Mohamed Bazoum, was arrested and the head of the presidential guard, General Abdourahamane Tiani, took power.

Since then, relations with Europe have deteriorated massively.

The EU and its member states condemned the coup, and most aid funds were then frozen.

Niger, once Europe's closest partner in the Sahel region, has since then increasingly turned away from the West and at the same time towards Russia.

The junta has announced that it wants to significantly expand military cooperation with Moscow.

There is now a great deal of mistrust, especially towards the former colonial power France.

Shortly after the coup, protesters attacked the French embassy in Niamey, and traces of the devastation can still be seen at the entrance today.

Some in the angry crowd waved Russian flags.

Numerous French citizens, including the ambassador, have since been expelled from the country and many more have been refused entry.

The French military has already had to withdraw from Niger.

Eucap's employees also faced an increasingly hostile atmosphere.

Several civilians stationed in the country for the mission were forced to leave Niger after the junta accused them of entering illegally.

The office in Agadez in the east of the country, where Nigerien security forces were previously trained in border security, closed this week and the signs on the facade have been removed.

The coup government has now legalized the transport of migrants to Libya anyway, and since then the transport companies' business has been flourishing again, their fully loaded pick-up trucks are now accompanied by the military on the journey through the Sahara.

Now, according to SPIEGEL information, the Eucap headquarters in the capital Niamey is also set to close more quickly than originally planned.

The international employees should leave the country as soon as possible; an orderly withdrawal is apparently no longer possible.

The Eucap management is now trying hard to hand over the remaining equipment to European partner countries.

Monday's raid showed that concerns about the whereabouts of the equipment are justified.

The weapons are now in the hands of a military government that plans to work closely with Moscow.

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