Niger announced overnight that it was reopening its borders with several of its neighbors, a week after a coup that has been condemned by foreign powers and raised fears of a wider conflict in West Africa's Sahel region.
Defense chiefs from regional bloc ECOWAS will start a two-day meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Niger, where ECOWAS has threatened to use force if soldiers do not reinstate the elected president.
A delegation from the regional bloc is also expected to arrive in Niger's capital Niamey on Wednesday to start talks with the junta, led by General Abdourahmane Tiani.
Countries that may now re-enter the Niger borders
"The land and air borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Libya and Chad are re-opened from today, August 1, 2023," junta spokesperson Colonel Amadou Abdramane said in a televised address.
The junta closed the borders last Wednesday, at the same time that it announced that it had removed democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum from power.
The borders that have reopened are mainly in remote desert areas. Niger's key entryways for trade and commerce remain closed due to sanctions imposed by the regional bloc.
Niger's history of power struggles
Niger's coup was the seventh military takeover in less than three years in West and Central Africa, where some of the coup-hit countries have banded together in opposition to the rest of the 15-nation regional bloc.
European countries started evacuating their citizens on Tuesday after Mali and Burkina Faso, also ruled by military juntas, said they would consider any regional intervention in Niger to be a declaration of war and would come to its defense.
The first military planes carrying mostly European nationals landed in Paris and Rome on Wednesday.
"Things could have turned ugly but it still is nice to be back here," a French evacuee who gave his name as Charles told Reuters TV.
"We will see how things evolve over there in the coming days and weeks. For us, who care about it quite a lot, we will follow this closely," he said.
Western military intervention in Niger must be ruled out, Italy says
Any Western military intervention in Niger must be avoided, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told RAI public television on Wednesday.
"We have to work so that democracy prevails in Niger ... we need to rule out any Western military initiative because it would be perceived as a new colonization," Tajani said.
His comments, reported by Italian news agencies, were confirmed by his spokesman.