President Emmanuel Macron warned in comments published Sunday that France will pull its troops out of Mali if it lurches towards radical Islamism following the second coup in nine months.

France has around 5,100 troops in the region under its so-called Barkhane operation which spans five countries in the Sahel — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The mission, headquartered in Chad, was launched after France intervened to fend off a jihadist advance in Mali in 2013.

On Tuesday France and the European Union denounced an “unacceptable coup d’etat” after Mali’s interim president Bah Ndaw and prime minister Moctar Ouane were detained and stripped of their powers in what is being seen as the country’s second coup in less than a year.

Macron said he had told Ndaw that France will withdraw its troops if Mali turns towards radical Islamism.

“Radical Islamism in Mali with our soldiers there? Never,” he told the weekly newspaper The Journal du Dimanche.

“There is this temptation today in Mali. But if it goes in that direction, I will withdraw,” he warned in comments made during a trip to Rwanda and South Africa. Macron flew home to Paris on Saturday.

The French president added that he had given a message to West African leaders that they could not back a country “where there is no longer democratic legitimacy or transition.”

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has invited Mali’s junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita to Ghana’s capital Accra for “consultations” ahead of an extraordinary summit on Sunday devoted to Mali.

Goita flew to Accra on Saturday, military and airport sources said.

He had served as vice president since leading a coup last August that ousted the democratically elected president, with the roles of president and prime minister held by civilians after pressure from ECOWAS, which has served as a mediator.

However, the transitional leaders were detained Monday before being released on Thursday, with the military saying they had resigned.

The twin arrests triggered a diplomatic uproar and marked the second apparent coup within a year in the Sahel country.

Mali’s constitutional court completed Goita’s rise to full power on Friday by naming him transitional president.

With the junta going back on its previous commitment to civilian political leaders, doubts have been raised about its other pledges.

Macron, in his comments published Sunday, warned that if Africa’s development fails then Europe “will pay dearly in terms of migration”.

He stressed the need to “invest massively” adding that the international community must also erase some of the continent’s debt burden “to help Africans build their future.”

More than a thousand refugees left a camp in Rwanda to return to the Democratic of Congo on Saturday, officials said, after escaping over the border fearing Mount Nyiragongo could erupt again.

Africa’s most active volcano roared back to life a week ago, sending terrified people in the nearby city of Goma running for their lives as rivers of lava destroyed homes and claimed nearly three dozen lives.

The eruption stopped, but warnings in recent days that it could blow again sent nearly 400,000 people rushing from Goma, with thousands crossing into Rwanda at a nearby border point.

Around 3,000 people sought refuge at a temporary camp in Rugerero, about ten kilometres (six miles) from the border.

But on Saturday an estimated 1,200 had left for Goma, a Rwanda government official at Rugerero told AFP on condition of anonymity. Military trucks were seen transporting refugees to the border.

William Byukusenge, a construction worker, said he felt the danger had passed.

“My house is in good shape, I have a wife and two kids. If it erupts again, we will come back to Rwanda,” the 21-year-old Congolese evacuee told AFP.

But another evacuee, Marie Claire Uwineza, said she had nowhere left to go.

“My house was burned, and I have nothing left,” said the 39-year-old, who fled with two of her children.

She was being sent to another camp at Busasamana, around 35 kilometres from the border, along with other evacuees unwilling or unable to return home yet.

At the camp, aid workers hastily erected tents and toilet facilities to meet growing demand.

Boubacar Bamba, the UN refugee agency’s deputy representative for operations in Rwanda, said the camp’s population had swollen in recent days from around 800 evacuees to closer to 2000.

“There is no time to plan. We plan and execute at the same time, because we are caught short by events,” he said.

“This site is designed for a maximum of 3,000 people. The likelihood of receiving more people depends on the activity of the volcano, we do not control that. We are preparing for all eventualities, even if our resources are not sufficient,” he added.

DR Congo’s government said Saturday that the eruption of a second, nearby volcano it had announced hours earlier was a “false alarm”.

Nearly 3,500 metres (11,500 feet) high, Nyiragongo straddles the East African Rift tectonic divide.

Its last major eruption, in 2002, claimed around 100 lives and the deadliest eruption on record killed more than 600 people in 1977.

Volcanologists say the worst-case scenario is an eruption under nearby Lake Kivu — a so-called “limnic eruption” when lava combines with a deep lake and spews out lethal, suffocating gas across a potentially large area.

The situation is “under control” following the eruption of a volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Felix Tshisekedi said on Saturday after his government mistakenly announced another volcano had erupted.

A week after Mount Nyiragongo roared back into life, causing devastation and sparking a mass exodus, “the situation is certainly serious but it is under control,” Tshisekedi told a news conference.

Around 400,000 residents have evacuated the eastern city of Goma after a week of rolling aftershocks following the eruption of Africa’s most active volcano.

“There is an underground lava flow that can arise anytime anywhere in the city,” Tshisekedi warned, strongly advising against people returning to Goma.

“The lava is no longer in the crater, but the volcano remains active, so we have to be wary and that’s why we don’t want to rush things by bringing back the populations,” he said.

His comments came after more than 1,000 refugees left a camp in Rwanda to return to DR Congo on Saturday.

Earlier in the day the DRC’s government announced that another volcano had erupted, later admitting it was a false alarm,

The blunder comes as the government is increasingly criticised over a looming humanitarian crisis.

“A plane has just flown over the entire area on the sides of this volcano. No eruption was observed,” it added.

The Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG) confirmed that while there was “intense activity” at Nyamuragira, “there has been no eruption”.

• ‘Limnic eruption’ fears –
  Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, lies on the shores of Lake Kivu in the shadow of Nyiragongo, Africa’s most active volcano.

Last Saturday the strato-volcano spewed rivers of lava that claimed nearly three dozen lives and destroyed the homes of 20,000 people before the eruption stopped.

Hundreds of aftershocks have rocked the region since, but the OVG said Saturday they had significantly decreased in both number and intensity over the past 48 hours.

The OVG’s latest report said that 61 earthquakes had shaken the area in the previous 24 hours.

It said the quakes were “consistent with the continued movement of magma in the Nyiragongo fissure system towards Lake Kivu”.

Scientists have warned of a potentially catastrophic scenario — a “limnic eruption” which occurs when lava combines with a deep lake and spews out lethal gas across a potentially large area.

However the OVG report said a “landslide or large earthquake destabilising the deep waters of the lake causing the emergence of dissolved gases” was now much less likely, though it still “cannot be excluded”.

Around 80,000 households — 400,000 inhabitants — have moved out of Goma since Thursday, when a “preventative” evacuation order was given.

The mounting humanitarian crisis comes in a region that has been ravaged by violence for three decades. Access to drinkable water is particularly urgent, according to aid organisations in the area.

“Sometimes it’s the war, now it’s the volcano,” a customs officers grumbled Saturday.

President Tshisekedi said the authorities were “on the way” to being able to distribute drinking water to those who had fled the area, adding that 5,000 houses had been destroyed.