Thousands of people gathered near a former French military base in Niamey, Niger, to celebrate the departure of the last French troops deployed in the country a week ago.
The celebratory rally was attended by the prime ministers of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.
The French exit leaves just hundreds of US military personnel and a number of Italian and German troops remaining in the country.
France announced it would pull out its roughly 1,500 soldiers and pilots from Niger after the former French colony’s new ruling generals demanded they depart following a coup on July 26.
It was the third time in less than 18 months that French troops were sent packing from a Sahel nation, after fellow former colonies Mali and Burkina Faso following military takeovers.
All three nations are battling a jihadist insurgency that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread, but their relations have nosedived with France since a string of coups in the region.
