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  • 8/2/2023
The first military planes carrying mostly European nationals evacuated from Niger landed in Paris and Rome on Wednesday (Aug 2) with France and other countries expected to fly more of their citizens out of the West African country after last week's coup.

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Transcript
00:00 The first military planes carrying mostly European nationals evacuated from Niger
00:05 landed in Paris and Rome on Wednesday.
00:08 Western countries have been scrambling to extract their citizens
00:11 after a military junta staged a coup in the West African nation last week.
00:16 The first French flight arriving in Paris carried more than 260 people on board.
00:22 France is expected to operate more repatriation flights.
00:26 Italy's aircraft meanwhile brought 87 evacuees to Rome.
00:31 Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the passengers included non-Europeans
00:39 such as Americans, Nigerians and Senegalese.
00:42 He added some Italian civilians decided to stay in Niger
00:46 and that the Italian embassy there will remain open.
00:49 Chaché the fair of the US embassy in Rome shone crowdly.
00:54 "They said they had a very traumatic experience so please let them go.
00:59 But we would like to thank the government of Italy for everything that they have done.
01:03 It's really been fantastic to have the citizens brought to safety.
01:08 So now I know that they are looking after the Italian citizens
01:12 and we are looking after the American citizens. Thank you very much."
01:15 The military coup has raised fears for the security of the Sahel region.
01:20 Defence chiefs from West Africa's regional bloc, IKOWAS,
01:24 are slated to meet in Nigeria on Wednesday to discuss the latest situation.
01:29 But Niger's neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, which also experienced coup,
01:34 earlier warned against any outside intervention to restore the ousted government,
01:39 saying it would be seen as a declaration of war.
01:44 For more UN videos visit: www.un.org/webcast
01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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