French troops start to withdraw from Niger

French troops have started leaving Niger more than two months after mutinous soldiers toppled the African country’s democratically elected president, the military said Wednesday.

More than 100 troops left in two flights from the capital Niamey on Tuesday in the first of what will be several rounds of departures between now and the end of the year, said French military spokesman, Col. Pierre Gaudilliere.Niger’s state television broadcast images of a convoy leaving a base in Ouallam in north, saying it was bound for Chad, to the east.