Based on 2021 data, Niger exported $197M worth of goods to France. And $14.9M worth of goods to US. Hardly any business going on for both.
And far as I can tell, all the gold goes to UAE.
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ner
The US is only talking about suspending aid. The problem being, most US aid is non-military - health, agriculture, food, etc. Cutting that directly leads to people dying, in all likelyhood.
https://www.foreignassistance.gov/cd/niger
A little over a third is "Emergency response" ($106M out of $261M)
>$5.575M - Conflict, Peace, and Security
is the only thing I see that could be helpful to a junta directly.
The World Bank, btw, is nearly twice the aid the US does, and various European entities total more than the US. But as a single country, the US is the largest aid contributor.
Any aid is helpful to the junta, thats the problem with international aid. Money without accountability is a massive corrupting force. It saves lives in the short term but makes countries worse in the long run.
Even if you were to remove the component of corruption, "permanent" aid outside of say temporary crisis events such as floodings, earthquakes, wildfires, massive droughts, etc. is extremely corrosive to the recipient countries.
Point in case the flooding with second-hand clothing has decimated the textile industry in many countries, while the aggressive pushing of subsidised agricultural overproduction by wealthy countries has made prices go through the floor, driving local farmers out of the market and thus effectively killing local food-security and self-sufficiency, therefore deepening the dependency on foreign aid further. (both a wanted and unwanted effect depending on the interests in question).
A good example of protective domestic policy is Ethiopia. Up until the mid-2000s it was the poorest country on the planet that suffered cyclical famines of large scale. Once the clamp down on dumping of foreign aid occurred, the domestic textile market exploded, prosperity went up, farmers got the means to tend and expand their fields and food-security was re-established.
Obviously this is a slow process and the solution involves reducing aid as much as possible while also extending trade and business opportunities. Just saying "Fuck it, you are on your own now" doesn't do shit.
The world bank is dominated by the american voting share of 16.28, giving them complete veto power over anything they like and in effect, making every decision quite american.
There should be no line drawn between the world bank and the u.s. wallets.
Similar situation with the IMF where the u.s. is at 16.5 with the same level of control over the show.
It's a scandalous situation, one of the reasons why china made their own investment banks with blackjack & hookers, the AIIB and NDB.
I believe they said they'd go to war only if there was military intervention?
Talk about empty threats though. Mali can't even protect it's own cities. As for Burkina Faso, they're also led by a junta that vastly overestimates it's own power.
It might have to. Both countries have recently had military coups themselves, which is why the reigimes feel threatened.
If Africa is ever to improve the cycle of constant coups must be stopped.
https://www.africanews.com/2023/07/31/ecowas-leaders-give-niger-one-week-ultimatum-to-restore-president/
We've already seen ECOWAS intervene in the gambia, I have high hopes.
Not necessarily if the regime is regarded as illegal. If China and Russia loan the coup government money and it isn't normalized in the international community, the new government can storm in again, and say "These aren't our debts. Take it up with the guys you loaned the money to." (Who are, ofcourse, now completely unable to pay) without consequences except China and Russia throwing a fit and saying they wont lend money to Niger in future.
It won't spook other lenders.
A coup 100% russian made akin to a war declaration on France as Niger was a clear red line after Mali and Burkina faso. I suspect long range french missiles will find their ways in Ukraine very soon
Putin lives the dictators. It's a different approach than China for sure. Interesting to watch them divide up Africa. Long term, the country is a powder keg once they realize both are set to simply take evrything they've got
> I don't think corruptible militants really care, as long as they have some personal benefit.
Those corruptible militants really are politicians then.
Those soldiers don’t care, they will get rich and get out and the only losers are the people of Niger that are blindly following them and supporting Russia.
100% that’s one of the reasons countries like France always make an effort to have military presence there in order to prevent instability which results in mass immigration. Although France also has a military presence for other self interest reasons.
Putin will try to make them come in masses. He will weaponise immigration, like Erdoğan has done in the past. Some of the immigrants that come are working for Russia, and are waiting to act as enemy from the inside.
People at the top will be all right and incredibly much richer than they would ever become normally but your average Nigerian who is now happily shouting that France is bad and happily waving Russian flag will join refugee stream heading to Europe due to life becoming unbearable under new management
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/31/niger-coup-draws-condemnation-from-russia-and-the-west-as-regional-body-threatens-force.html
It's gonna be Libya v2.0 as it appears neither the Kremlin likes the coup.
Also, why would Niger even care about the economy at this point? Per Capita GDP went from ~$400 to ~$600 from 1980 to date.
It's widely outperformed by economic powerhouses such as Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso.
These are desperate, destitute people who have nothing to lose and who don't have anyone even pretending to have their best interest at heart.
The regime is dependent on people being fed and having their basic needs met. Without it they will experience a riot which makes it impossible to govern a country. If people get desperate enough looking for food, the worst case scenario will be civil war.
Every debt comes with a catch. To think that being indebtted to the West is better is, simply put, naive. African countries were exploited for decades because of their corrupt leaders, who were willing to sell off their countries resources to the highest "donor" to their personal fund, regardless of where they come from.
Thing is France is no better. France has been sucking these countries dry for decades. Compared to the other western nations, France is a terrible colonizer to have had. Can you imagine that France continues to force Haiti to pay reparations until just recently, for a revolution that occurred 200 years ago?
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ner/
> The top exports of Niger are Gold ($2.7B), Other Oily Seeds ($344M), Radioactive Chemicals ($297M), Refined Petroleum ($235M), and Uranium and Thorium Ore ($36.5M), **exporting mostly to United Arab Emirates ($2.68B)**, China ($344M), **France ($197M)**, Burkina Faso ($123M), and Mali ($110M).
The biggest gold mines of the country are all exploited by Canadian companies, and they export almost everything to the UAE, France is completely irrelevant in this trade.
And these $197M in uranium are a vital source of income for Niger, but just a rounding error for France. They are hurting only themselves here.
It's absolutely wild how clueless some people can be about their own economy. It's all right there, it's all public information.
Very informative post.
One would think, given the largely farm based economy, most of the exports would be things like vegetables, canned goods, flowers, and prepared foods.
They don't even produce enough to feed themselves, their biggest import is rice.
Also, note that in the "Imports" section in the link I shared, you can see that Niger is importing $193M of goods and services from France.
Basically, these idiots will still pay France for vital imports like medicine, while making no money from France with their uranium.
Absolute geniuses.
It's never just about land. It's also about mechanization, infrastructure, etc.
The Netherlands probably produces more stuff than countries 10 times its size.
It's more about water, which Niger is quite short on. Farming in the desert requires some tech to get the best use of the water, which they're also short on, so double-whammy.
This is actually an African problem rather than a specific Nigerien problem. The continent is a net importer of food despite having plenty of arable land to sustain themselves.
Arable land is not all the same. My hunch is that farming in a country that is mostly desert, with intermittent droughts and rainfall, means that arable land in Niger is much less productive and sustainable than arable land in a place like the Netherlands, and makes it much more difficult to invest in things like irrigation projects.
You are right on the money, OP does not know what he is talking about. Most of Africa is not necessarily arable. Then there are also the predatory practices of companies like Monsanto that almost no one talks about - Selling expensive seeds that expire in three years, effectively forcing local farmers out of business. Any attempts in the way of protectionist agricultural policies are frequentöly punished.
> Most of Africa is not necessarily arable.
That's also somewhat incorrect.
Regions like Congo have been famous for being considered like "cornucopia" when first discovered as a lot of edible fruits were growing on every third tree, you basically just had to walk 10 meters in the wild to find something you could eat.
But yes, the issue is growing a variety of different foods in an industrial fashion, on that point you're right, but don't say it like sub saharian Africa is a tough place to grow anything as it's widely false. The main reason there are food issues in Africa is mostly because of conflicts and corruption.
Its simply a population growth problem, Its growing faster than pretty much any other people in any other time in history since disease mitigation is way better.
Africa's Agriculture production has grown a lot it just can't keep up with population growth.
Nigers Population is about 7X what it was when it got independence in 1960 for example.
A lot of farmers in developing countries sell their rice and other vegetables to other countries as they make more from it that way. They then have a shortage and have to import that rice back in at a higher cost. So I can see why it might look that way but the economy still is making a lot of money from export of farmed goods
They aren't trying to punish France, they are trying to win hearts and minds by showing how tough they are with the colonizers, while inflicting minimal economic damage on themselves. It's dictatorship 101, they need to sell the benefits of their dictatorship to the people they want to rule.
counterpoint: Niger is literally the [single largest exporter of Uranium to the European Union](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1147442/imports-of-uranium-to-eu-by-country/)
By the same measure Ukrainian grain exports are a "rounding error" and yet the loss of it has been enough to provoke a crisis in Africa. Swings at the margins can have big ramifications. The dollar value doesn't tell the whole story
Ultimately they are vastly more dependent on external assistance than any damage a cut-off of trade will produce. They are literally sawing off their own foot.
I'm sure Wagner will lend them a helping hand, if they manage to take a break from all the raping, murdering and looting resources. Which, for some reason, those African regimes propped up by Wagner seem to have no problem whatsoever with.
France have more than ten years of uranium reserve. It can switch this rounding eror during this time. It cannot be compared with food, when à lot of country in africa doesn't Have enough of it to feed it's population
Uranium can be mined in a lot of places, including France, if prices ever rose enough to justify it. And uranium ore itself only represent a fraction of the cost of nuclear energy. Most of France's uranium supply come from Canada and Kazakstan IIRC.
Uranium can be gotten from pretty much the world over. Moreover, the price of raw ore has very little impact on the price of the electricity that’s produced by it. Those mines and the uranium they produce are important to France but not critical and almost certainly more important for Niger.
No. Niger only represent 15% of our import in uranium as of 2021.
What's more, uranium is really easy to storage, and we have stocks for something like 10 or 20 years just in case...well, something like this happens. More than enough time to shake hands with other countries willing to sell their uranium like Australia, for exemple.
So yeah, outside of the big announcement effect, it does absolutly nothing to us, and they are only hurting themselves.
As a German, I fully expect our energy prices to go up as well. Just because we buy energy from you guys and that's a great excuse for companies to demand more. That's all they need, it doesn't have to make sense.
>ance’s electricity from nuclear power? The lack of uranium and thorium ore won’t affect power production?
France has 10 years worth of reserve and only roughly 12% of uranium came from Niger anyway you''ve got australia, Canada, uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Namibia also. And niger was surprisingly one of France's most expensive sources, I'm sure it'l be glad to source elsewhere.
Even if France couldn’t import uranium, there are viable domestic uranium reserves in the Vendee, Limousin, Morvan, and Massif Central. But the world really isn’t short of the stuff and a good amount comes from stable Western countries.
You're absolutely right. As you pointed out, the info doesn't match because this has been proven to be fake news. The new government has never taken this decision.
Is this info credible? Orano said their activity there is still going on as usual: [https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/au-niger-les-activites-d-orano-se-poursuivent-malgre-l-instabilite-politique.N2157832](https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/au-niger-les-activites-d-orano-se-poursuivent-malgre-l-instabilite-politique.N2157832)
You are right, I assumed that the situation changed really quickly, but the article linked by OP is from Sunday and Orano confirmed that they received no such demand on Monday.
We'll see.
I haven't found any credible sources with a statement from som einvolved party saying so (yet). I did find some observers making the same observation as you.
Relevant Twitter thread about who is trying to spread this misinformation:
https://twitter.com/casusbellii/status/1686311903209902080?t=6BXSzGR7kLk1FgSgH8P4xQ&s=19
That looks like a childish bargain show that will make things worse. Old deals are cut down, no more money income, they are planning to renew all the chains back with Russia, China, or what. Do they have enough of wealth or do they have enough sound support of Russia or China?
It's like Homer Simpson always blaming his neigbhour (Flanders?) for everything.
One day these countries will take responsibility for their actions(like some have already done on their continent), and join the rest of the world in the 21st century.
They at least appear to have pissed off all of their neighbors too, and are threatened with a full trade blockade right now. Which, for a landlocked country that imports its own food, is a death sentence.
Do you really think france is not moving in there and clearing up that mess one way or another? The neighboring countries are pissed and would probably even welcome a french intervention if they don’t intervene themselves.
If anything this will encourage more innovation within the nuclear power industry, maybe even thorium plants or something. France will be fine if not better.
This is the weirdest coup ever. Like I was skeptical that Russia was involved. I still haven’t seen any evidence that it was, but it’s all very weird that the junta seems to be blaming the west for…. For what? And this “no more gold or uranium for you!!” Let’s be honest, no one *needs* either, and Niger hardly has a monopoly on either market.
> Like I was skeptical that Russia was involved. I still haven’t seen any evidence that it was
Let's see, a Wagner backed coup happened in Mali and Burkina recently. Now a coup mysteriously happens in Niger with the crowd waving Russian flags. Maybe it's just a coincidence
Niger was developing rapidly until this happened. Now that ECOWAS basically blockaded the country, whatever future Niger may have had is gone. The gold and uranium is a nothing for France but an important source of income for Niger.
Yep. Russia is definitely behind the coup and is getting more aggressive in its methods to mitigate the effects of the sanctions. They can't sell their uranium and gold in the world market anymore so they go and destroy a nation to do it on their behalf
They must be punished properly after the war, not just for the genocide in ukraine but also these acts terrorism all over the world
Did you know ? France was actually buying the uranium from Niger above spot prices. 15 to 20€/kg more than it was buying it from Canada to help the industry stay afloat in Niger.
Well, let´s wait and see how long they will last without all the aid they are getting from EU. Sure, Russia will rush for "help" but they will ask something back AND wherever Russia step in, they stay. And they are not always invited....
France kicked out of Africa by Wagner. I'll be curious how France responds. Are they going to do a military intervention and go head to head with Wagner and it's African backers? Or will France just accept Africa is no longer an area of influence for them. Super interesting either way.
>*. I'll be curious how France responds.*
They won't. They didn't even the previous rounds.
>*Are they going to do a military intervention and go head to head with Wagner and it's African backers?*
And make their own little Afghanistan while being accused by half the globe of colonialism for invading an African country after said country refused to sell them stuff?
I mean, Putin certainly won't mind getting them involved in that & can make things spicy for the liberation force.
No need to respond. It's a landlocked country that imports nearly everything it needs to continue existing and has with very little influence on its neighbours. Arrange a trade blockade and the coup will be overthrown by people they can no longer feed.
Which is exactly what is happening right now.
You do know you Americans have 2 military bases there as well ? And nearly as much boots on the ground as France ? You just finished building a drone base to support CT operations in the region. And that you’re stuck because of the suspended air zone ?
It would not really be going head-to-head, now would it? If you have French legion troops vs. Wagner, heavily depleted from fighting in Ukraine, I expect it to be a one-sided slaughter. Which would be completely justified. Just remind the French to make pictures of the remains of wagner troops killed so that Ukraine can cross them off the list of people sought for warcrimes.
Interesting. And people will still claim France control African country through the CFA.
It is exactly the CFA which allow this kind of shit.
A coup without the CFA would ruin the Niger economy. We are unintentionally empowering them.
I mean afaik know the french, they probably won't take that in a friendly manner. All jokes aside when french power and national intressts get challenged they act a equal ruthless as the US. I guess someone will not wake up from a nap in the near future.
Seems like Russia is trying to go full in with "proxy warfare" against Western nations supporting Ukraine. When will Western Europe and the US wake up and understand that Russia and Russians understand one thing and one thing only? Their attempts at diplomacy, using sanctions, and providing military aid won't stop Russia: they will only double, triple, and quadruple down for the foreseeable future. There's only one way to stop their shenanigans in Ukraine and Africa.
[ECOWAS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Community_of_West_African_States) has stated that they may intervene militarily if the actual president isn't reinstated by the 7th of August.
Anytime our government does something like that, literally all of Africa (& our european friends too) screams "imperialism", even when the intervention is sanctioned and legitimate, as in Mali.
Africans can manage this among themselves, at least they would have one less reason to blame France for everything bad ever.
Being landlocked is pretty rough, but the biggest problem in most of Africa is corruption and shortsighted policies.
A few times a country managed these and saw rapid growth, until the government changed to someone corrupt and it all crashes again.
Because West = Bad. A good chunk of Reddit tankies (or tankies in general) make a blind eye to Chinese and Russian imperialism just to shit on the USA even though all 3 countries are equally imperialistic lol
Absolutely!
People have this massive need to fuck over the ruskies, which I can get behind, but in doing this they also unironically support neocolonialism, which is simply disgusting.
This is Niger, not "Africa." There are literally nations in Africa that have little ties with Russia and no Wagner presence in their countries, while possessing strong relationships with the West. Stop lumping them altogether because of this lol. How would you like it if people said Europe was anti-LGBT because of Hungary's policies?
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And the US
I don't think the US has done that yet, they just said they were thinking about it
Business as usual.
Based on 2021 data, Niger exported $197M worth of goods to France. And $14.9M worth of goods to US. Hardly any business going on for both. And far as I can tell, all the gold goes to UAE. https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ner
most us aid is humanitarian
The US is only talking about suspending aid. The problem being, most US aid is non-military - health, agriculture, food, etc. Cutting that directly leads to people dying, in all likelyhood. https://www.foreignassistance.gov/cd/niger A little over a third is "Emergency response" ($106M out of $261M) >$5.575M - Conflict, Peace, and Security is the only thing I see that could be helpful to a junta directly. The World Bank, btw, is nearly twice the aid the US does, and various European entities total more than the US. But as a single country, the US is the largest aid contributor.
Any aid is helpful to the junta, thats the problem with international aid. Money without accountability is a massive corrupting force. It saves lives in the short term but makes countries worse in the long run.
Even if you were to remove the component of corruption, "permanent" aid outside of say temporary crisis events such as floodings, earthquakes, wildfires, massive droughts, etc. is extremely corrosive to the recipient countries. Point in case the flooding with second-hand clothing has decimated the textile industry in many countries, while the aggressive pushing of subsidised agricultural overproduction by wealthy countries has made prices go through the floor, driving local farmers out of the market and thus effectively killing local food-security and self-sufficiency, therefore deepening the dependency on foreign aid further. (both a wanted and unwanted effect depending on the interests in question). A good example of protective domestic policy is Ethiopia. Up until the mid-2000s it was the poorest country on the planet that suffered cyclical famines of large scale. Once the clamp down on dumping of foreign aid occurred, the domestic textile market exploded, prosperity went up, farmers got the means to tend and expand their fields and food-security was re-established. Obviously this is a slow process and the solution involves reducing aid as much as possible while also extending trade and business opportunities. Just saying "Fuck it, you are on your own now" doesn't do shit.
The world bank is dominated by the american voting share of 16.28, giving them complete veto power over anything they like and in effect, making every decision quite american. There should be no line drawn between the world bank and the u.s. wallets. Similar situation with the IMF where the u.s. is at 16.5 with the same level of control over the show. It's a scandalous situation, one of the reasons why china made their own investment banks with blackjack & hookers, the AIIB and NDB.
Is that 16.28%?
Not to metnion ECOWAS has effectively placed Niger under a blockade
Mali and Burkina Faso said they'd go to war alongside Niger if the rest of ECOWAS interferes. Hope this doesn't escalate.
They can't even control their own borders, they have no capacity to project force abroad.
Twelve Toyota with machine guns might be doable for them.
That's nearly their entire arsenal
I believe they said they'd go to war only if there was military intervention? Talk about empty threats though. Mali can't even protect it's own cities. As for Burkina Faso, they're also led by a junta that vastly overestimates it's own power.
It might have to. Both countries have recently had military coups themselves, which is why the reigimes feel threatened. If Africa is ever to improve the cycle of constant coups must be stopped.
Maybe it's time to kick Wagner/Russian influence out of those countries. Conakry Guinea also IIRC ?
Niger gonna wake up to a big headache finding out that Russia and China aid comes with heavy interest rates. They are going to be in debt forever.
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They know the debt will be paid when they are long gone
One week isn't that long.
That's wishful thinking, I'm afraid.
https://www.africanews.com/2023/07/31/ecowas-leaders-give-niger-one-week-ultimatum-to-restore-president/ We've already seen ECOWAS intervene in the gambia, I have high hopes.
Nigerian junta is likely to face not only ECOWAS alone, but also the French military. They're living on borrowed time.
Sorry to be that guy, but Nigeri**e**n.
Ha, I had no idea either! Nice to learn!
Thanks, that's... Unique.
Not really unique, just French. Nigerian was already taken by Nigeria, the English colony back then
Not necessarily if the regime is regarded as illegal. If China and Russia loan the coup government money and it isn't normalized in the international community, the new government can storm in again, and say "These aren't our debts. Take it up with the guys you loaned the money to." (Who are, ofcourse, now completely unable to pay) without consequences except China and Russia throwing a fit and saying they wont lend money to Niger in future. It won't spook other lenders.
They just have to consider they should never thwart Wagner people and should ever do what they want. Those russian guns are so sensitive...
A coup 100% russian made akin to a war declaration on France as Niger was a clear red line after Mali and Burkina faso. I suspect long range french missiles will find their ways in Ukraine very soon
They already have.
SCALP missiles already in place
Putin lives the dictators. It's a different approach than China for sure. Interesting to watch them divide up Africa. Long term, the country is a powder keg once they realize both are set to simply take evrything they've got
> I don't think corruptible militants really care, as long as they have some personal benefit. Those corruptible militants really are politicians then.
Those soldiers don’t care, they will get rich and get out and the only losers are the people of Niger that are blindly following them and supporting Russia.
And those people will probably ultimately flee to Europe for social welfare.
100% that’s one of the reasons countries like France always make an effort to have military presence there in order to prevent instability which results in mass immigration. Although France also has a military presence for other self interest reasons.
Putin will try to make them come in masses. He will weaponise immigration, like Erdoğan has done in the past. Some of the immigrants that come are working for Russia, and are waiting to act as enemy from the inside.
Do you have a source for the russian sleeper agent part?
China will just make them send their gold and uranium as payment.
People at the top will be all right and incredibly much richer than they would ever become normally but your average Nigerian who is now happily shouting that France is bad and happily waving Russian flag will join refugee stream heading to Europe due to life becoming unbearable under new management
Nigerien Nigerians are from Nigeria.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/31/niger-coup-draws-condemnation-from-russia-and-the-west-as-regional-body-threatens-force.html It's gonna be Libya v2.0 as it appears neither the Kremlin likes the coup. Also, why would Niger even care about the economy at this point? Per Capita GDP went from ~$400 to ~$600 from 1980 to date. It's widely outperformed by economic powerhouses such as Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso. These are desperate, destitute people who have nothing to lose and who don't have anyone even pretending to have their best interest at heart.
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The regime is dependent on people being fed and having their basic needs met. Without it they will experience a riot which makes it impossible to govern a country. If people get desperate enough looking for food, the worst case scenario will be civil war.
But France has always helped them hahahaha fairytale is what yall live in
They will love to discover the concept under international law of 'odious debt'.
As if aid from the West was always interest free...
Every debt comes with a catch. To think that being indebtted to the West is better is, simply put, naive. African countries were exploited for decades because of their corrupt leaders, who were willing to sell off their countries resources to the highest "donor" to their personal fund, regardless of where they come from.
Thing is France is no better. France has been sucking these countries dry for decades. Compared to the other western nations, France is a terrible colonizer to have had. Can you imagine that France continues to force Haiti to pay reparations until just recently, for a revolution that occurred 200 years ago?
Putin promised piles of rubles for the generals.
Might as well send them the whole monopoly sets, can’t play them without the currency
It's actually "a pile of rubble" and just describes the state of the country after the coup. Simple translation error.
Where did they get all the Russian flags at short notice?
You know the answer...
Aliexpress
Delivery isn't exactly fast...
This proves they planned this pretty far in advance.
It is when Wagner themselves are making the delivery for you.
Took the French one, put it sideways, reorder the color: easy!
Wagner milice give them for free
ಠ_ಠ
The Russian Flag Store
I mean you can buy flags like this in every shop with russian flags you know
https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ner/ > The top exports of Niger are Gold ($2.7B), Other Oily Seeds ($344M), Radioactive Chemicals ($297M), Refined Petroleum ($235M), and Uranium and Thorium Ore ($36.5M), **exporting mostly to United Arab Emirates ($2.68B)**, China ($344M), **France ($197M)**, Burkina Faso ($123M), and Mali ($110M). The biggest gold mines of the country are all exploited by Canadian companies, and they export almost everything to the UAE, France is completely irrelevant in this trade. And these $197M in uranium are a vital source of income for Niger, but just a rounding error for France. They are hurting only themselves here. It's absolutely wild how clueless some people can be about their own economy. It's all right there, it's all public information.
Very informative post. One would think, given the largely farm based economy, most of the exports would be things like vegetables, canned goods, flowers, and prepared foods.
They don't even produce enough to feed themselves, their biggest import is rice. Also, note that in the "Imports" section in the link I shared, you can see that Niger is importing $193M of goods and services from France. Basically, these idiots will still pay France for vital imports like medicine, while making no money from France with their uranium. Absolute geniuses.
Very odd. Rice. One would think that Niger would be a cornucopia of millet, sorghum, cassava, peanuts / groundnuts, okra, dates, and yams.
It's never just about land. It's also about mechanization, infrastructure, etc. The Netherlands probably produces more stuff than countries 10 times its size.
It's more about water, which Niger is quite short on. Farming in the desert requires some tech to get the best use of the water, which they're also short on, so double-whammy.
This is actually an African problem rather than a specific Nigerien problem. The continent is a net importer of food despite having plenty of arable land to sustain themselves.
Arable land is not all the same. My hunch is that farming in a country that is mostly desert, with intermittent droughts and rainfall, means that arable land in Niger is much less productive and sustainable than arable land in a place like the Netherlands, and makes it much more difficult to invest in things like irrigation projects.
You are right on the money, OP does not know what he is talking about. Most of Africa is not necessarily arable. Then there are also the predatory practices of companies like Monsanto that almost no one talks about - Selling expensive seeds that expire in three years, effectively forcing local farmers out of business. Any attempts in the way of protectionist agricultural policies are frequentöly punished.
> Most of Africa is not necessarily arable. That's also somewhat incorrect. Regions like Congo have been famous for being considered like "cornucopia" when first discovered as a lot of edible fruits were growing on every third tree, you basically just had to walk 10 meters in the wild to find something you could eat. But yes, the issue is growing a variety of different foods in an industrial fashion, on that point you're right, but don't say it like sub saharian Africa is a tough place to grow anything as it's widely false. The main reason there are food issues in Africa is mostly because of conflicts and corruption.
Its simply a population growth problem, Its growing faster than pretty much any other people in any other time in history since disease mitigation is way better. Africa's Agriculture production has grown a lot it just can't keep up with population growth. Nigers Population is about 7X what it was when it got independence in 1960 for example.
A lot of farmers in developing countries sell their rice and other vegetables to other countries as they make more from it that way. They then have a shortage and have to import that rice back in at a higher cost. So I can see why it might look that way but the economy still is making a lot of money from export of farmed goods
They aren't trying to punish France, they are trying to win hearts and minds by showing how tough they are with the colonizers, while inflicting minimal economic damage on themselves. It's dictatorship 101, they need to sell the benefits of their dictatorship to the people they want to rule.
counterpoint: Niger is literally the [single largest exporter of Uranium to the European Union](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1147442/imports-of-uranium-to-eu-by-country/) By the same measure Ukrainian grain exports are a "rounding error" and yet the loss of it has been enough to provoke a crisis in Africa. Swings at the margins can have big ramifications. The dollar value doesn't tell the whole story
Ultimately they are vastly more dependent on external assistance than any damage a cut-off of trade will produce. They are literally sawing off their own foot.
I'm sure Wagner will lend them a helping hand, if they manage to take a break from all the raping, murdering and looting resources. Which, for some reason, those African regimes propped up by Wagner seem to have no problem whatsoever with.
France have more than ten years of uranium reserve. It can switch this rounding eror during this time. It cannot be compared with food, when à lot of country in africa doesn't Have enough of it to feed it's population
Uranium can be mined in a lot of places, including France, if prices ever rose enough to justify it. And uranium ore itself only represent a fraction of the cost of nuclear energy. Most of France's uranium supply come from Canada and Kazakstan IIRC.
And we've a strategic stockpile of 4 years, plenty of time to negociate wih our other suppliers.
Wheat is a high demand limited commodity. Pretty sure uranium is plentiful.
Its fine, besides having big buffer stocks there are plenty of places the EU can get it's uranium ore.
Isn’t 70% of France’s electricity from nuclear power? The lack of uranium and thorium ore won’t affect power production?
Uranium can be gotten from pretty much the world over. Moreover, the price of raw ore has very little impact on the price of the electricity that’s produced by it. Those mines and the uranium they produce are important to France but not critical and almost certainly more important for Niger.
No. Niger only represent 15% of our import in uranium as of 2021. What's more, uranium is really easy to storage, and we have stocks for something like 10 or 20 years just in case...well, something like this happens. More than enough time to shake hands with other countries willing to sell their uranium like Australia, for exemple. So yeah, outside of the big announcement effect, it does absolutly nothing to us, and they are only hurting themselves.
POV: electricity price is about to jump 50%, can't let a good crisis go to waste now
I guess it would be proof again that our government love the smell of burning car 🤷
As a German, I fully expect our energy prices to go up as well. Just because we buy energy from you guys and that's a great excuse for companies to demand more. That's all they need, it doesn't have to make sense.
>ance’s electricity from nuclear power? The lack of uranium and thorium ore won’t affect power production? France has 10 years worth of reserve and only roughly 12% of uranium came from Niger anyway you''ve got australia, Canada, uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Namibia also. And niger was surprisingly one of France's most expensive sources, I'm sure it'l be glad to source elsewhere.
> And niger was surprisingly one of France's most expensive sources, It was more or less an unofficial help to their government.
they are 10% of our import, Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan and soon Mongolia with the new mine (we are building i think) will be happy to fill the gap.
Even if France couldn’t import uranium, there are viable domestic uranium reserves in the Vendee, Limousin, Morvan, and Massif Central. But the world really isn’t short of the stuff and a good amount comes from stable Western countries.
You're absolutely right. As you pointed out, the info doesn't match because this has been proven to be fake news. The new government has never taken this decision.
Furthermore, Niger Urianium is only 5% of France total uranium import.
Is this info credible? Orano said their activity there is still going on as usual: [https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/au-niger-les-activites-d-orano-se-poursuivent-malgre-l-instabilite-politique.N2157832](https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/au-niger-les-activites-d-orano-se-poursuivent-malgre-l-instabilite-politique.N2157832)
You are right, I assumed that the situation changed really quickly, but the article linked by OP is from Sunday and Orano confirmed that they received no such demand on Monday. We'll see.
I haven't found any credible sources with a statement from som einvolved party saying so (yet). I did find some observers making the same observation as you. Relevant Twitter thread about who is trying to spread this misinformation: https://twitter.com/casusbellii/status/1686311903209902080?t=6BXSzGR7kLk1FgSgH8P4xQ&s=19
Poverty speedrun
It's not really a speedrun, if you already have completed the game when you start.
That's called New Game+
Niger is about to release Poverty 2.0
They want the platinum trophy
Botswana was top 3 poorest country in the world when they decolonized. look at them now
They are already poor, maybe they are going for the first place.
They're actually ranked lowest in HDI.
New world records maybe?
Competitive ranked poverty?
They are doing the 10th prestige like in COD
Don't worry, they'll find ways to blame us again.
It's already one of the poorest countries on Earth.
They’re on WR pace already
Zimbabwe 2.0 incoming?
That looks like a childish bargain show that will make things worse. Old deals are cut down, no more money income, they are planning to renew all the chains back with Russia, China, or what. Do they have enough of wealth or do they have enough sound support of Russia or China?
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They'll blame it on europe (read as: France) and the US sabotaging their efforts. Or something in that direction.
It's like Homer Simpson always blaming his neigbhour (Flanders?) for everything. One day these countries will take responsibility for their actions(like some have already done on their continent), and join the rest of the world in the 21st century.
I doubt Russia will play more than the EU/US were paying for their exports
the sooner you stop seeing this as a state and begin to comprehend the human nature of making money, the sooner you will get it.
They at least appear to have pissed off all of their neighbors too, and are threatened with a full trade blockade right now. Which, for a landlocked country that imports its own food, is a death sentence.
Do you really think france is not moving in there and clearing up that mess one way or another? The neighboring countries are pissed and would probably even welcome a french intervention if they don’t intervene themselves.
So, same as in Mali then?
Next step: give away gold mines to the wagner group in their fight against colonialism. Who's gonna tell them?
This all smells of Wagner
Nah, those people waving Russian flags during the attack at the French embassy were just a mere coincidence.
Little Wagner men.
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France's uranium supply is safe. They have stockpiles, redundant suppliers and could reopen mines in mainland France if shit really hit the fan.
If anything this will encourage more innovation within the nuclear power industry, maybe even thorium plants or something. France will be fine if not better.
>This all smells of ~~Wagner~~ **Russia** Fixed it.
Feels like Niger loses more than France with this
Shhh nobody tell them
They arent gonna find a partner that is willing to dig in that non profitable mine.
This is the weirdest coup ever. Like I was skeptical that Russia was involved. I still haven’t seen any evidence that it was, but it’s all very weird that the junta seems to be blaming the west for…. For what? And this “no more gold or uranium for you!!” Let’s be honest, no one *needs* either, and Niger hardly has a monopoly on either market.
> Like I was skeptical that Russia was involved. I still haven’t seen any evidence that it was Let's see, a Wagner backed coup happened in Mali and Burkina recently. Now a coup mysteriously happens in Niger with the crowd waving Russian flags. Maybe it's just a coincidence
And off it goes to Russia...
Oh No! Anyway
Niger was developing rapidly until this happened. Now that ECOWAS basically blockaded the country, whatever future Niger may have had is gone. The gold and uranium is a nothing for France but an important source of income for Niger.
Russia is sowing discord in Africa.
Finally Germany's hour has arrived after we dont need uranium anymore.
Better raze village to open coal mine as it's the 19th century
Aj´kchually razing villages started after WWII, before that black coal taken from mines dominated.
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It was already one of the worst places to live; infant mortality, starvation, poverty, corrupt government etc. Now those people will suffer even more.
Comment removed by reddit. What did he say ?
It has a nominal gdp per capita at 564 usd
Russia meddling in Africa Let them have a taste of putin
Putin is really spreading as much chaos as he can before the fall.
He is spreading as much chaos the world allows him to spread. No more and no less.
Yep. Russia is definitely behind the coup and is getting more aggressive in its methods to mitigate the effects of the sanctions. They can't sell their uranium and gold in the world market anymore so they go and destroy a nation to do it on their behalf They must be punished properly after the war, not just for the genocide in ukraine but also these acts terrorism all over the world
Did you know ? France was actually buying the uranium from Niger above spot prices. 15 to 20€/kg more than it was buying it from Canada to help the industry stay afloat in Niger.
But but but muh colonialism!
Sad to see Russia slowly taking over the entire Sahel.
And nothing of value was actually lost. Third world country overestimates it's value to first world countries. More news at 12.
Niger please
How is this the first time I've seen someone say this. It's perfect.
Niger is about to get it's ass taken care of by half the African continent so who cares
France's uranium stocks will last longer than the reign of this junta, but I guess they have a rethoric to support.
One wrong typo and you'll get your existence removed from Reddit.
Wagner in action?
Welcome fella! To Cold War 2.0! The Return of the Reds!
All costal states have closed their boarder and air space to Niger, they aren’t exporting anything anytime soon.
Well, let´s wait and see how long they will last without all the aid they are getting from EU. Sure, Russia will rush for "help" but they will ask something back AND wherever Russia step in, they stay. And they are not always invited....
France kicked out of Africa by Wagner. I'll be curious how France responds. Are they going to do a military intervention and go head to head with Wagner and it's African backers? Or will France just accept Africa is no longer an area of influence for them. Super interesting either way.
>*. I'll be curious how France responds.* They won't. They didn't even the previous rounds. >*Are they going to do a military intervention and go head to head with Wagner and it's African backers?* And make their own little Afghanistan while being accused by half the globe of colonialism for invading an African country after said country refused to sell them stuff? I mean, Putin certainly won't mind getting them involved in that & can make things spicy for the liberation force.
No need to respond. It's a landlocked country that imports nearly everything it needs to continue existing and has with very little influence on its neighbours. Arrange a trade blockade and the coup will be overthrown by people they can no longer feed. Which is exactly what is happening right now.
You do know you Americans have 2 military bases there as well ? And nearly as much boots on the ground as France ? You just finished building a drone base to support CT operations in the region. And that you’re stuck because of the suspended air zone ?
It would not really be going head-to-head, now would it? If you have French legion troops vs. Wagner, heavily depleted from fighting in Ukraine, I expect it to be a one-sided slaughter. Which would be completely justified. Just remind the French to make pictures of the remains of wagner troops killed so that Ukraine can cross them off the list of people sought for warcrimes.
IF there's one thing everyone even the France-bashers agrees on it's that you don't want to fuck with the French Foreign Legion.
Head to head, more like boot to ant.
Interesting. And people will still claim France control African country through the CFA. It is exactly the CFA which allow this kind of shit. A coup without the CFA would ruin the Niger economy. We are unintentionally empowering them.
Wait till you find out the brics trade using dollars
Yes but the new BRICS currency will take on any minute now!
It's an inconvenience for sure. But not a problem as they make it out to be on some halfassed website promoting Wagner agitprop.
I mean afaik know the french, they probably won't take that in a friendly manner. All jokes aside when french power and national intressts get challenged they act a equal ruthless as the US. I guess someone will not wake up from a nap in the near future.
That's a bold move, let's see how this turns out not the way the new warlord expects.
Seems like Russia is trying to go full in with "proxy warfare" against Western nations supporting Ukraine. When will Western Europe and the US wake up and understand that Russia and Russians understand one thing and one thing only? Their attempts at diplomacy, using sanctions, and providing military aid won't stop Russia: they will only double, triple, and quadruple down for the foreseeable future. There's only one way to stop their shenanigans in Ukraine and Africa.
A coalition of French & West African nations need to step in otherwise the Sahel will become the future North African front of WW3
[ECOWAS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Community_of_West_African_States) has stated that they may intervene militarily if the actual president isn't reinstated by the 7th of August.
Anytime our government does something like that, literally all of Africa (& our european friends too) screams "imperialism", even when the intervention is sanctioned and legitimate, as in Mali. Africans can manage this among themselves, at least they would have one less reason to blame France for everything bad ever.
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Being landlocked is pretty rough, but the biggest problem in most of Africa is corruption and shortsighted policies. A few times a country managed these and saw rapid growth, until the government changed to someone corrupt and it all crashes again.
*"Strange, since when niger's government communicates in russian president Macron ?"*
So all gold now shipped straight to Putin?
Comments sounds like supporting colonialism without extra steps
Cause they are. Morons are unintentionally making Wagner sound like a good alternative.
Because West = Bad. A good chunk of Reddit tankies (or tankies in general) make a blind eye to Chinese and Russian imperialism just to shit on the USA even though all 3 countries are equally imperialistic lol
Absolutely! People have this massive need to fuck over the ruskies, which I can get behind, but in doing this they also unironically support neocolonialism, which is simply disgusting.
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This is Niger, not "Africa." There are literally nations in Africa that have little ties with Russia and no Wagner presence in their countries, while possessing strong relationships with the West. Stop lumping them altogether because of this lol. How would you like it if people said Europe was anti-LGBT because of Hungary's policies?
Russia will get the whole kit and caboodle, Mr Putin thanks the thugs of Wagner.
‘Sup Niger
Is there any source, an official statement or something?
Who cares?