Niger exposes France at UN: Colonialism, terror, economic warfare Niamey turns to China, Türkiye

At the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Lamine Zeine Ali Mahaman, prime minister of Niger’s Transition Government, delivered a defiant speech accusing France of orchestrating decades of destabilisation across the Sahel.

He criticised Paris for neo-colonial interference and framed his speech as a call for justice, sovereignty, and the reclaiming of Niger’s history and resources, Caliber.Az reports, citing Peoples Dispatch. 

The most striking part of Zeine’s speech was his direct criticism of France, Niger’s former colonial power, whose neo-colonial meddling has been a driving factor in the uprisings across the Sahel. He accused Paris of:

• Training, arming, and funding terrorist groups after their military expulsion from Niger in 2023.
• Running disinformation campaigns to discredit Niger’s institutions and leadership.
• Fueling inter-ethnic tensions and sowing discord with neighbouring states.
• Waging an “economic and financial war” by blocking investment and lobbying international financial institutions against Niger.

Zeine went further, demanding that France acknowledge and atone for its colonial crimes. He recalled massacres committed during France’s violent conquest of Niger in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Zinder to Tessawa, where women, children, and entire villages were exterminated.

In November 2021, in Téra, young demonstrators were assassinated by the French army. And just this year, in March 2025, 44 Muslims were executed in cold blood at Friday prayers. These crimes remind us of those committed ever since 1899,” he said, calling France’s role “abject terrorism behind which it hides.”

He announced that Niger’s transitional authorities had set up a commission of historians and scientists to “rewrite the true history of our country, to reclaim ownership of our history, and to give back to our great nation its dignity.”

Zeine used the global platform to underline Niger’s reclamation of sovereignty over its uranium resources, which for decades supplied France’s nuclear industry while leaving Nigeriens in poverty and environmental devastation. Since July 2023, the ruling National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) has expelled French companies and sought new partnerships with Russia, China, and Türkiye.

By Aghakazim Guliyev