Niger's land and air borders with five neighbouring countries have been reopened, nearly a week after they were closed following a coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum, one of the putschists announced Tuesday on national television.
"The land and air borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali and Chad are reopened" from "today", he declared, hours after a first French evacuation flight took off and five days before a deadline to restore constitutional order issued by a bloc of West African countries.
Meanwhile, the first French plane carrying 262 people evacuated from coup-hit Niger landed at Paris-Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport shortly after 1:30 am Wednesday (2330 GMT Tuesday), an airport source told AFP.
"There are 262 people on board the plane, an Airbus A330, including a dozen babies," French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told AFP earlier, adding that "nearly all the passengers are compatriots".
-AFP
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