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France cuts off aid to Niger amid growing Western condemnation of coup (www.france24.com)

submitted 1 year ago by Woland@lemm.ee to c/world@lemmy.world

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Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, receiving close to $2 billion a year in official development assistance, according to the World Bank.

It is also a key security partner of Western countries such as France, the former colonial power, and the United States, which both use it as a base for their efforts to contain an Islamist insurgency in West and Central Africa's Sahel region.

Previously seen the most stable country among several unstable neighbours, Niger is the world's seventh-biggest producer of uranium.

Niger's foreign allies so far have refused to recognize the new military government led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, previously head of the presidential guard, who officers declared head of state on Friday.

Bazoum has not been heard from since early Thursday when he was confined within the presidential palace, although the European Union, France and others say they still recognize him as the legitimate president.

"In addition to the immediate cessation of budget support, all cooperation actions in the domain of security are suspended indefinitely with immediate effect," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

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[-] Yepthatsme@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

I was in Niger in 2015 and the mine outside of Agadez hired everyone to come and work which left schools lacking teachers because pay was better at the mine. Then they closed it down and teachers went to find other jobs.

I have been to dysfunctional countries before but this was pretty bad. The government was shaky then and basically the military takes bribes for anything. Wells that NGOs paid to have dug are basically cement slabs on grade and no well.

The complicated history, culture, colonialism and people really leave shallow options for improvement. Coups are a part of Niger unfortunately. It sucks because the culture and the people are really amazing.

I wonder what Sidi Amar and the Tuareg are up to. Probably kicking some ass as usual.

[-] ManosTheHandsOfFate@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I lived in Niger from '86 to '92 as a kid. It's sad to see a country in which I spent my formative years in such bad shape. There are so many wonderful Nigeriens that don't deserve this

[+] Janis@feddit.de -23 points 1 year ago

nah i think its like this: the french are imperialists and never stopped being imperialists which is why they are in trouble now with their ancient energy supply. cant buy your resources in both places that sell uranium: russia and niger.

french could have cared about niger but what the french actually cared about the entire time was just uranium. and now their stupidity bit them in the ass.

i mean last summer they couldnt run their nuclear reactors because of the heat and no water. what did the french so? NOTHING. as always.

i hope the french stay out of niger as their reasons are just greed.

[-] Skua@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

cant buy your resources in both places that sell uranium: russia and niger.

~~The world's two biggest uranium producers are Canada and Australia~~ Close allies Canada and Australia are two of the world's biggest producers, not to mention many other countries like Namibia (see exchange with schroedingershat below)

i mean last summer they couldnt run their nuclear reactors because of the heat and no water. what did the french so? NOTHING. as always.

I don't understand what this has to do with Niger at all. What could France have possibly done in Niger that would have made the summer in France less hot?

France is taking a position in alignment with the African Union and ECOWAS here. Are you really saying that France should be financially supporting a military coup?

[-] bouh@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Russia is doing stuff in Niger right now. Supporting anti-france protests. I can't tell why. You're answering a Russian troll here.

[-] schroedingershat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The world’s two biggest uranium producers are Canada and Australia

You misspelled Kazakhstan and Namibia. Niger also has massive mines, but is very unstable. It's consistently top ten and often top five though,

Why do nukebros always lie about every single easily checked detail every single time without fail?

[-] Skua@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

I apologise, I was looking at reserves and not producers (although Kazakhstan looks to be ahead of Canada on that entry too, with Australia still easily having the largest reserves). I didn't say Niger wasn't a large supplier of it, just that there's more to the market than Niger and Russia as implied in the comment I replied to.

I'm not ultra pro-nuke either, it's just a tool that we should be using to cut down on carbon emissions but which has its significant drawbacks like very costly and expensive set up.

The point stands that France hasn't cut itself off from world uranium supplies, as some of the world's biggest producers (Australia, Canada) are close allies and it still has a relationship sufficient for buying from several other top producers

[-] schroedingershat@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Kazakhstan's uranium is controlled almost exclusively by russia (with china and orano having some control). The situation there is just as corrupt and imperialostic as Niger.

Canada and Australia's combined production is enough for Canada's domestic use and about half of the USA's (although russia controls a substantial portion of that too), no amount of playing shell games and handwaving at global markets makes it magically go further. This insistence that we believe the 20 year old lie that all uranium comes from Cigar Lake and Ranger is infantile and insulting.

France's uranium supply is dependent on theirs and russia's colonial control and brutal exploitation of africa and central asia. About the best that can be said is Namibia's comparative stability along with the fear of China's (very temporary) comparatively good treatment of the miners leading to less control has led to slightly less exploitation there and some of France's uranium is sourced in Namibia.

[-] Skua@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

This insistence that we believe the 20 year old lie that all uranium comes from Cigar Lake and Ranger is infantile and insulting.

I haven't said that at all, let alone insisted upon it. I said that the original comment's assertion that the only two places that sell uranium are Russia and Niger is wrong. I stuck with Australia and Canada as examples because they're well-known close allies of France and among the world's largest producers, not because I think they're the only sources. Stop putting words in my mouth, please.

[-] schroedingershat@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Both of which are irrelevant to france, which sources their uranium primarily from russia and their former colonies.

You brought up australia and canada with the implication that their production meant there was no dependence, which would require those two to produce uranium in sufficient quantities to supply France and the USA, and the rest of Europe from just the subset of mines not controlled by China and Russia in those countries. This is impossible given that the total production from Canada and Australia is about what France alone uses and China+Russia have major interests in both countries.

This is that same lie and now you are doubling down on it.

[-] NavalExplorer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Both of which are irrelevant to france, which sources their uranium primarily from russia and their former colonies.

You should check the sources you are using more carefully.

In the latest data (2020), France was getting its Uranium mostly from Niger (34,7 %), Kazakhstan (28,9 %), Uzbekistan (26,4 %) and Australia (9,9 %). Russia was never really a provider apart from a small recycling operation involving 10tons last year (out a of yearly consumption of 7000 tons). Australia is actually increasing since 2020 then with Uzbekistan decreasing. And 3 out of these 4 countries have not been French colonies.

[-] schroedingershat@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

More bizarre paltering and attempts to change the meaning of my words.

Russia owns the supply chain for the uranium from central asia for the stuff china and the US doesn't use. Just because they do the polluting and economically devistating part elsewhere (as france does in Niger) doesn't meant there isn't dependence on Rosatom and Russia.

Only one of those countries (the one with the smallest share) does not have a history (and present) of brutal exploitation by either france or russia or both.

[-] Skua@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

This is that same lie and now you are doubling down on it.

I do wish you'd have a conversation with me and not with whatever you've decided to be angry about.

The scale of France's uranium usage vs Australia and Canada's production is a fair refutation to what I said. It's also a refutation to Niger and Russia being the only markets to buy from as was said in the comment I originally brought up Canada and Australia to respond to, and they produce more than Niger and Russia. As you've brought up, Central Asia is the part making the difference here, and that requires looking in to who controls the mines in those countries. It looks like France is still buying uranium from Russian-controlled sources in Kazakhstan particularly.

None of what I said requires me to think that nuclear power is the magic bullet to solve all problems or that Canada and Australia are the only uranium producers in the world, and nor did I ever intend to imply either of those things. You just stuck them in between the lines of my comments somewhere.

[-] schroedingershat@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Every single time the topic of the complete environmental and geopolitical clusterfuck of uranium comes up, someone comes along with the astroturfed propaganda bullshit line about how cigar lake and ranger (which are also clusterfucks, just much smaller ones) means it's all fine.

Whether or not you're doing it on purpose, you're spreading russian propaganda. It's really gross. You're now paltering again by claiming the rounding error of the contribution from Australia means the overwhelming majority that comes from Niger and Russia isn't the important bit.

France's history and present in Niger is brutal, violent, and environmentally economically devistating.

Russia's present in Niger and central asia is even worse.

France depends on both for over 50% of its electricity (and 90% of their nuclear power) and has made zero actions to stop funding a terrorist state's nuclear weapons infrastructureand violent colonisation program. Instead they are actively spreading propaganda and fighting against russian sanctions.

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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023

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