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President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will pull its soldiers out of Niger following a July coup in the West African country.
Macron said 1,500 troops would withdraw by the end of the year and that France, the former colonial power in Niger, refused to “be held hostage by the putschists”.
The development came after weeks of pressure from the Niger junta and popular demonstrations in the backdrop of Western concerns over Russia’s expanding influence in Africa as Russian mercenary force Wagner was already present in Niger’s neighbor Mali.
