After a tug-of-war lasting more than three weeks, France has been forced to concede that it has been defeated by Niger's military rulers. In late August, French ambassador Sylvain Itté was ordered by the coup leaders to leave Niger within 48 hours. On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 27, Itté finally returned to Paris with six of his staff, after a brief stopover in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. French Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna then met with the diplomat "to thank him and his staff for their work in service to our country, under difficult conditions," according to a statement from the ministry.

Itté's return was announced by Emmanuel Macron on Sunday in an interview with French TV channels TF1 and France 2, during which he also announced the withdrawal of some 1,500 French troops from Niger "by the end of the year."

For almost a month, the junta led by Abdourahamane Tiani had demanded the departure of the French ambassador and soldiers, but Paris had until then formally refused, considering the coup leaders illegitimate and only recognizing the authority of deposed president Mohamed Bazoum. Held by the military for two months, Bazoum still refuses to resign.

Faced with France's stubbornness, the junta had stepped up the pressure on the French diplomatic enclave in recent weeks. Paris, meanwhile, did not hesitate to use hyperbole, describing its diplomat as a "hostage." "We have an ambassador and members of the diplomatic corps who are literally being held hostage at the embassy," said Emmanuel Macron in mid-September, denouncing the ban on food deliveries which forced diplomatic staff to eat "army rations."

Itté's immunity and diplomatic visa were withdrawn by the junta at the end of August. In early September, the European Union (EU) and Spanish ambassadors, who had come to show their support for him, were prevented by Nigerien police from entering the embassy. Two days earlier, a French staff member who was moving back to France had a removal truck full of his possessions stopped by police – the entire load was seized.

Behind the scenes, since mid-August several French diplomatic sources had acknowledged that France would have no choice but to give in to the Nigerien junta, with the failure of all the efforts at mediation undertaken by West African countries, which tried to get the military to step down.

The future of the French diplomatic presence in Niger is now more uncertain than ever. According to two diplomatic sources, Paris has no immediate plans to replace its ambassador with a chargé d'affaires (a diplomat serving in an ambassador's absence), as was the case in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali. "We are examining the exact operating conditions of our embassy, which have already deteriorated considerably," the French Foreign Affairs Ministry told Le Monde.

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