Less than two months after the suspension of their cooperation in Niger following the July 26 coup, Switzerland and Denmark are in the process of resuming their activities and their aid in the country. The Swiss experts repatriated from Niamey are back and the Swiss cooperation office in Niger will soon gradually resume its activities, according to Berne, while Denmark has just announced the partial resumption of its development aid.
According to information reported this Wednesday by RTS, four experts from the SDC, the Directorate for Development and Cooperation, arrived Monday evening in Niamey, after leaving the country urgently, at the beginning of August, following the coup d’état of last July. The DDC office will therefore gradually resume its activities on site adds the same source which underlines that almost two months after the overthrow of the elected president of Niger and the takeover of power by the military, the DDC has decided to reopen its office in Niamey . Four Swiss experts are indeed back in the Nigerien capital. “We have carried out a security analysis and even if the situation remains fragile, we can work on site. In the event of a deterioration in the situation, our expatriate staff will be able [again] to leave the country,” he told RTS,
According to the same source, since August 11, SDC experts repatriated to Bern have been remotely managing various projects in Niger through the SDC, which supports the initiative through humanitarian aid and development programs whose budget in 2023 is estimated at around 30 million francs.
With the reopening of its office and the resumption of its activities, the SDC will gradually resume its activities in the field and among its priority missions: adapting some of its programs to the new situation. Indeed, indicates the same source, Berne has decided to interrupt all direct payments to the central government or to state agencies, but will direct the funds to projects and programs which will directly benefit the Nigerien populations, particularly in the areas of education and human security.
Partial resumption of Danish aid
Denmark also announced the partial resumption of its development aid to Niger which was suspended after the military coup. “The population of Niger is on the brink of catastrophe, with a potential influx of refugees as a result. Of course, we cannot turn a blind eye to this situation,” announced Tuesday the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Scandinavian country, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, in an interview with the newspaper Politiken and reported by AFP.
The head of Danish diplomacy indicated that the southern countries are “the most important priority at the moment, in light of the war in Ukraine, military coups in Africa and the Danish candidacy for the Security Council “. However, he clarified that it was “obvious that the subjects of cooperation differ slightly depending on whether it is a democratic government or not”.
According to the same source, the terms of the resumption of aid must be determined but it is not a question of completely relaunching the program of 920 million crowns or a little more than 80 billion CFA francs committed over five years but last.
Several European countries announced the suspension of their cooperation with Niger the day after the CNSP took power. At the beginning of September, in a press release, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for “breaking with any logic of collective punishment” to limit the effect on the Nigerien populations of the economic sanctions imposed by ECOWAS following the overthrow of the power of Bazoum Mohamed.