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France will begin evacuating its nationals from Niger on Tuesday, the foreign ministry said, after a coup there last week toppled the country’s pro-Western leader.

The decision to move citizens out was prompted by attacks on the French embassy in the capital Niamey, and the closure of Niger’s airspace which made regular departures impossible, the ministry said in a statement.

France had earlier on Tuesday said that it was preparing an evacuation “in the face of a deteriorating security situation in Niamey” but gave no time frame.

The foreign ministry said France was offering to evacuate other European nationals wanting to leave.

Italy also said on Tuesday it would offer a special flight to repatriate its nationals from Niamey.

“The Italian government has decided to offer our fellow nationals present in Niamey the possibility to leave the city with a special flight for Italy,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani tweeted.

The ministry said it was “not an evacuation” but “a special flight for those who want to leave the country”.

Niger President Mohamed Bazoum, 63, was detained by his own presidential guard in a third coup in as many years in the Sahel, following putsches in neighbouring fellow former French colonies Mali and Burkina Faso.

Former colonial power France and the United States have between them deployed 2,600 soldiers in Niger to battle jihadists.

On Monday Niger’s junta accused France of seeking to “intervene militarily” to reinstate Bazoum, which French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna denied.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday vowed “immediate and uncompromising” action if French citizens or interests were attacked, after thousands rallied outside the French embassy in Niamey.

Some tried to enter the compound but were dispersed by tear gas.

Colonna said the demonstration had been “organised, not spontaneous, violent, extremely dangerous, with Molotov cocktails, Russian flags appeared, anti-French slogans (that were) an exact copy of what you can hear elsewhere”.

Junta-led neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali have warned that any military intervention in Niger to restore the deposed president would be considered a declaration of war against their two countries.

Their warning came a day after West African leaders, supported by their Western partners, threatened to use “force” to reinstate the democratically-elected Bazoum and slapped financial sanctions on the putschists.

In a joint statement on Monday, the governments of Burkina Faso and Mali warned that “any military intervention against Niger would be tantamount to a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali”.

They said the “disastrous consequences of a military intervention in Niger … could destabilise the entire region”.

The two also said they “refuse to apply” the “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane sanctions against the people and authorities of Niger”.

At an emergency summit on Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded that Bazoum be reinstated within a week, failing which it would take “all measures” to restore constitutional order.

“Such measures may include the use of force for this effect,” it said in a statement.

The bloc also slapped financial sanctions on the junta leaders and the country, freezing “all commercial and financial transactions” between member states and Niger, one of the world’s poorest nations, which often ranks last on the UN’s Human Development Index

Pressure to push the perpetrators of the July 26 coup to quickly restore constitutional order is building from Western and African partners in Niger, a country considered essential in the fight against jihadist groups that have ravaged parts of the Sahel region for years.

Russia has called for the swift return of “the rule of law” and “restraint from all parties” in Niger.

Macron has spoken to Bazoum several times as well as to regional leaders, the presidential palace in Paris said.

Bazoum – a Western ally whose election just over two years ago marked Niger’s first peaceful transition of power since independence from France in 1960 – was toppled by the elite Presidential Guard.

Guards chief General Abdourahamane Tiani declared himself leader, but his claim has been rejected internationally and ECOWAS has given him a week to hand back power.

Bazoum is one of a dwindling group of elected presidents and pro-Western leaders in the Sahel, where since 2020 a jihadist insurgency has also triggered coups in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Bazoum’s PNDS party on Monday warned that Niger risked becoming a “dictatorial and totalitarian regime” after a series of arrests.

The country’s oil minister and mining minister were arrested that morning, according to the party. The head of the PNDS’s national executive committee was also arrested.

The PNDS said the junta had previously arrested the interior and transport ministers along with a former defence minister.

The European Union condemned the arrest of ministers from the ousted government and demanded they be freed immediately.