Скачать с ютуб Niger keeps border with Benin closed for security reasons в хорошем качестве

Niger keeps border with Benin closed for security reasons

After Benin blocked ships near the Port of Seme from loading oil from the Niger-Benin pipeline on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, due to the Nigerien military junta keeping the border closed between their two countries, Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine stated on Saturday that the border was to remain closed for security reasons. During a radio broadcast on Saturday, Zeine stated that Niger has “decided to keep [its] border closed with Benin for the good and simple reason that . . . the French returned to Beninese territory after their departure from Niger.” As mentioned by Mali Web, the Nigerien authorities claim there are five French bases in Benin at the border of Niger. Zeine also accused the French of training terrorists in some of these camps to “destabilize” Niger. Beninese spokesman Wilfried Houngbédji responded to these accusations on Sunday during a local radio broadcast by declaring that the alleged French military bases are instead “small military camps intended to secure Benin” and invited “authorities in Niamey to send independent media to see for themselves the absence of foreign bases in Benin.” To add insult to injury, the government of Niger is now preventing Benin from transporting goods through neighboring Togo to Niger. As mentioned by Sputnik Africa, the Nigerien junta said that “it reserves the right to request Burkina Faso, Mali, and Ghana for these operations, ‘in the event of strong demand.’” Just three months after the successful military coup in Niger, junta spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane accused France of deploying military aircraft and 40 armored vehicles to the Ivory Coast and Benin amid tense relations between the junta and ECOWAS, which had threatened to invade Niger unless the junta restored President Mohamed Bazoum to office. During this time, France refused to accept the junta as the legitimate government of Niger.