Niger's junta has reopened the country's land and air borders with five countries nearly a week after the frontiers were closed as a coup unfolded.
The borders with Mali, Burkina Faso, Libya, Algeria and Chad have been reopened, an army officer announced on state TV.
"The land and air borders with Algeria, Burkina Faso, Libya, Mali and Chad are reopened" from today (Tuesday)", he declared. But the junta has not commented on reopening borders with Nigeria.
Nigeria is currently leading the West African regional group, ECOWAS, which is opposed to the coup and threatening to use force against the junta to reinstate the deposed president, Mohamed Bazoum. The border with Benin has also not been reopened.
The reopening of the borders was announced hours after the first French evacuation flight took off and five days before a deadline to restore constitutional order issued by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.
ECOWAS Military chiefs
In the region's third military takeover in as many years, President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown by his own guard, sounding alarm bells in the region and beyond.
Military chiefs of members of the West African bloc ECOWAS will meet in the Nigerian capital Abuja from Wednesday to Friday to discuss the coup in Niger, the organisation said.
On Sunday the Economic Community of West African States slapped sanctions on Niger and warned it might use force as it gave the junta a week to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum.
An ECOWAS official also told AFP news agency on Tuesday that a delegation from the bloc led by former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar would visit Niger on Wednesday.
Evacuations
The coup in Niger has been widely condemned internationally with Western countries now evacuating their nationals.
The first plane carrying French nationals and citizens of other European countries evacuated landed in Paris on Wednesday, according to Reuters journalists at the airport.
The flight, which France chartered, left Niger on Tuesday evening. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said 262 people were onboard the aircraft.
The evacuees were those who wanted to leave the country, where a military junta overthrew Niger's democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.
Evacuations will continue on Wednesday, with French nationals advised to go to the international airport in Niamey, Niger's capital, according to the French foreign ministry website.
