Le Niger pose des conditions à la réouverture de sa frontière avec le Bénin
Niger on Saturday laid down preconditions for reopening its border with Benin, as the two countries begin to ease tensions in their relations.
Niger's Interior Minister, General Mohamed Toumba, met on Saturday in Cotonou with the committee of experts in charge of the case.
He mentioned two preconditions for a reopening: "the signing of a defense agreement" and that of "a security agreement which establishes the inviolable principle of the non-use of one's territory against the other".
General Toumba also demanded "total transparency on foreign devices stationed near the border" of the two countries delimited by the Niger River, according to remarks broadcast on Nigerien television, Télé Sahel.
In recent years, Niger has repeatedly accused Benin of hosting French military bases on the border, which Cotonou and Paris have always denied.
This border has been closed for almost three years, shortly after a military regime came to power in July 2023 in Niamey, which accused its Beninese neighbor of seeking to destabilize it with the support of France.
But the visit of Benin's new president, Romuald Wadagni, to Niger in early June marked a thaw in the very tense relations between the two countries, which have been facing recurring jihadist violence from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Niger's Interior Minister, an important figure in the junta, also called on Saturday for "the operational creation of a bilateral intelligence fusion cell" so that the armies of Benin and Niger "stop fighting alone against an enemy that does not recognize borders".
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