The French army said on Tuesday it had begun withdrawing troops from Niger after being ordered out by the leaders of a coup that ousted the president and Paris ally.
The move kicks off a complex and fraught process that Paris expects to be completed by the end of the year, drawing the curtain on another French anti-jihadist operation in Africa.
“The first troops have left,” the spokesman for the French chief of staff told confirming an announcement Monday by Niger’s military leadership, which said the 1,400-strong French contingent would start leaving Tuesday.
A convoy of soldiers with trucks transporting equipment and armoured vehicles from western Niger arrived in the capital Niamey around midday on Tuesday.
A French defence source said a first group of soldiers considered a priority for evacuation for health or humanitarian reasons flew out of Niger on Monday.
Niamey had spoken of convoys of troops being escorted out of the country overland by the Nigerien army, without saying where they would go.
The regime said Friday the withdrawal would take place “safely”.
There has been no official word on where the French convoys are ultimately headed.
According to security sources, they are expected to head towards Chad via more than 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) of roads and tracks to reach the capital N’Djamena, where French forces in the Sahel command are based.
The withdrawal was expected to cause logistical headaches for the French, with few safe routes out of a region plagued by myriad jihadist groups.
Niger’s land borders with Benin and Nigeria have been closed since the July 26 coup.
