French President Emmanuel Macron says his country will withdraw its ambassador and troops from Niger in the wake of the July coup that overthrew democratically-elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

“France has decided to withdraw its ambassador. In the next hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France,” Macron said in a televised interview on Sunday. He added that military cooperation was “over” and French troops would withdraw in “the months and weeks to come” with a full pullout “by the end of the year”.

France has maintained some 1,500 troops at its base in Niger and refused a request by the new military rulers for its ambassador to leave.

Thousands of people have protested in recent weeks in the capital Niamey, including outside a military base housing French soldiers. The new rulers had been demanding the exit of the French ambassador and troops after Macron refused to recognise the coup.

The development comes as France’s troops have also been asked to leave its former colonies Mali and Burkina Faso.

“This is definitely a small victory for the government in transition, and perhaps an embarrassment for the French who have seen Mali, Burkina Faso and now a third country in the Sahel where it is being asked by the government in place to leave the country,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Senegal’s capital Dakar.

“The French ambassador has essentially been held hostage inside the embassy. The Niger security forces wouldn’t let anyone in or out. He has been surviving on the food rations inside the embassy.”

(Aljazeera)

At least 35 people have been killed in Benin after a fuel depot exploded into flames, sending a black cloud of smoke into the sky, according to officials and witnesses.

The fire broke out on Saturday at a warehouse for smuggled fuel in the town of Seme-Podji near the border with Nigeria, where cars, motorbikes and tricycle taxis came to stock up on fuel, residents said.

“The fire burned down the store and according to an initial assessment resulted in 35 deaths including one child,” Prosecutor Abdoubaki Adam-Bongle in a statement.

“According to the witnesses interviewed, the fire was probably started during the unloading of bags of gasoline.”

More than a dozen others were seriously injured and are being treated in hospital, he said.

A video of the fire widely circulated on social media, verified by Al Jazeera, shows a tower of black smoke and flames spewing into the air above what appears to be a marketplace as shocked people watch from a safe distance.

(Aljazeera)