AFPNiger’s navy leaders have renamed streets and monuments with French names within the newest transfer to sever ties with the nation’s former colonial energy.
Avenue Charles de Gaulle within the capital Niamey is now renamed Avenue Djibo Bakari in honor of the Nigerien politician who performed a key function within the West African nation’s independence battle.
“The names of most of our avenues, boulevards and streets… are simply reminders of the struggling and bullying our individuals suffered throughout the colonial interval,” stated Main Abdramane Amadou, a spokesman for the junta. .
Niger’s relations with France and different Western allies soured after President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in a coup final 12 months.
Like its military-dominated neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger has turned to Russia for navy assist as a jihadist insurgency threatens the area, with the three nations uniting to type the so-called Alliance of Sahel States.
Below Bazoum, France has stationed greater than 1,500 troops in Niger to assist struggle jihadist teams linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. By the top of final 12 months, that they had all give up.
Ceremonies had been held in Niamey on Tuesday to mark varied identify modifications, together with an avenue as soon as named after a French basic and a struggle memorial commemorating those that died in World Battle I and World Battle II.
Now it “pays tribute to all civilian and navy victims of colonial rule so far”.
De Gaulle was a soldier and politician who fashioned the French government-in-exile when Nazi German troops occupied France throughout World Battle II. He turned the chief of the Free French armies.
Many Africans within the French colonies volunteered to struggle for the Free French armies, though many had been additionally conscripted.
About 400,000 individuals come from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, and greater than 70,000 individuals come from Senegal and different sub-Saharan colonies. In August 1944, they participated within the Allied landings in southern France, which had been essential in driving the Nazis from the world.
Actually, as a part of a reassessment of its colonial previous, France starts renaming some streets and squares after African heroes of World War II 4 years in the past.
AFPOne other restored website in Niamey is a stone monument with a statue of French colonial official and explorer Parfait-Louis Montaire. In 1890, he set out from Senegal throughout West Africa and wrote a e book about his two-year journey.
His picture has now been changed by a plaque bearing the portrait of Burkina Faso’s iconic revolutionary chief Thomas Sankara, a charismatic Pan-Africanist who was deposed in 1987. Assassination.
Throughout his time in energy, he adopted an anti-imperialist international coverage that challenged France’s appreciable affect in a lot of its former colonies in Africa.
One other essential identify change is Niamey’s Place de la Francophonie, named after the Francophone group.
As a substitute, will probably be known as Union Sq. of the Sahel, named after the nation’s new alliance with Burkina Faso and Mali.
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