Niger's military coup leader, Abdourahmane Tchiani, has decried the sanctions imposed on the country by ECOWAS and said that the leadership will not succumb to international pressure to reinstate Niger's elected president, Mohamed Bazoum.
"The National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland rejects these sanctions altogether and refuses to give in to any threats, wherever they come from," Tchiani said. "We refuse any interference in the internal affairs of Niger."
Tchiani also described the ECOWAS sanctions as "illegal, unfair, inhumane and unprecedented."
Apart from that, the general touched on the evacuation of French citizens, saying that they have never been the object of the "slightest threat" and they have "no objective reason to leave Niger."
Earlier in the day, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said that France had completed operations to evacuate citizens from Niger, with more than a thousand people transferred.
On June 26, Niger's military said during an address on national TV that President Mohamed Bazoum had been ousted, borders closed, and a curfew declared.
Prior to that, the Presidential Guard blockaded the presidential palace in the capital Niamey. Bazoum's office claimed that the army did not support the rebels, but the Armed Forces command later declared solidarity with them.
The coup in the West African nation drew condemnation from Western countries as well as ECOWAS.
ECOWAS had earlier said that it would give a week for President Bazoum to be returned to power in Niger, but could then resort to "all measures," including military ones.