President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will pull its soldiers out of Niger following a July coup in the West African country.

Macron said 1,500 troops would withdraw by the end of the year and that France, the former colonial power in Niger, refused to "be held hostage by the putchists".

The development came after weeks of pressure from the Niger junta and popular demonstrations in the backdrop of Western concerns over Russia's expanding influence in Africa as Russian mercenary force Wagner already present in Niger's neighbour Mali.

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Macron said in an interview with France's TF1 and France 2 television stations: "We will consult with the putschists because we want things to be orderly.”

France's ambassador was also being pulled out and would return to the country in the next few hours, Macron added.

French influence fading away

French influence over its former colonies has been fading away in West Africa in recent years after its troops have been kicked out of neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso since coups in those countries, reducing its role in a region-wide fight against deadly Islamist insurgencies.

Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of France and the United States, which have used it as a base to fight an Islamist insurgency in West and Central Africa's wider Sahel region.