The crisis in Niger is gaining momentum. France’s goal: to ensure the safety of about 600 French people in the country. To do this, last Sunday after the coup against Nigerian President Mohamed Bum, a nerve center was opened on the Quai d’Orsay in Paris at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: a cell of the Center for Crisis and Support (CDCS). Twenty out of 105 permanent agents are mobilized 24 hours a day. Their mission is to inform, reassure and guide, providing all the necessary information to citizens who wish to leave the country after the putsch last week.
This Tuesday, August 1, as aircraft rotations begin to repatriate the stranded French, the camera is swarming. On the wall is a map of Niger and two clocks. One in French time, the other in the Nigerian time zone. Only one hour difference with Paris, making it easy to exchange.
“Community” center and “medical center”
The crisis cell consists of two main poles: “public” and “medical”. All of their members are on the phone. Each of the members of the first pole is assigned a list of citizens who declared themselves at the French consulate. Their role? Determine if they are actually present and what their needs are.
The mission of “contact with the public” delegated by the consulate, which cannot take care of it locally, in the current context of anti-French violence. The “medical” pole addresses well-known citizens in need of special care or psychological support.
CDCS agents are emergency professionals: diplomats, contractors, and aid workers. In order not to get away with it, an internal appeal to living forces has been launched.
Starting this weekend, two or three meetings with interested ministers and departments are being held daily in the conference hall of the crisis center. At the forefront of which is Catherine Colonna, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who heads the CDCS, and Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces. In direct contact with the French Consulate in Niamey, the capital of Niger. “The crisis bloc will be mobilized as long as it takes,” the Foreign Ministry assured.
Source: Le Parisien
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