According to a group of soldiers who appeared on Niger’s national television late Wednesday, hours after the president was held in the presidential palace, Niger President Mohamed Bazoum has been deposed.
Colonel Amadou Abdramane, seated and flanked by nine other officers, read from a statement claiming the defence and security forces had decided to “put an end to the regime that you know due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance.”
According to Abdramane, Niger’s borders have been closed, a statewide curfew has been enforced, and all Republican institutions have been suspended.
The soldiers cautioned against any foreign intrusion and stated that they will ensure Bazoum’s safety.
The coup, the ninth in the West and Central African area since 2020, could hinder Western efforts to assist Sahelian countries in combating a jihadist insurgency that has extended from Mali over the last decade.
Land-locked Niger, a former French colony, has emerged as a critical ally for Western countries looking to assist in the war against insurgencies, but they are encountering increased hostility from the new juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Niger is also an important ally of the European Union in the fight against sub-Saharan African irregular migration.
France sent troops from Mali to Niger last year after relations with the temporary government there deteriorated. Amid comparable difficulties, it has also evacuated special soldiers from Burkina Faso.
Bazoum’s victory was the first democratic transfer of power in a country that had experienced four military coups since its independence from France in 1960.
Since 2012, the US has paid over $500 million to assist Niger in improving its security. Germany stated in April that it would participate in a three-year European military mission to improve the country’s military capabilities.
“In the Sahel region, Bazoum has been the West’s only hope. France, the United States, and the European Union have spent a large portion of their resources in the region to strengthen Niger and its security forces,” said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung think tank.
He claimed that a coup would allow Russia and other actors to expand their influence in Niger.
THE SEVENTH COUP
Presidential guards led by General Omar Tchiani seized over the presidency early Wednesday, leading regional leaders to organize a quick mediation mission to try to prevent a coup.
Dissatisfaction with the state’s failure to prevent violent attacks on towns and villages has fueled two coups in Mali and two in Burkina Faso since 2020. In 2021, a junta seized control in Guinea, adding to instability in a region that had begun to shed its reputation as a “coup belt.”
A coup attempt was foiled in Niger in March 2021, when a military unit attempted to capture the presidential palace only days before the newly elected Bazoum was to be inaugurated.
Earlier on Wednesday, the African Union and the West African regional body ECOWAS condemned what they dubbed a coup attempt.
Following a meeting with Nigerian President and ECOWAS Chairman Bola Tinubu, the president of neighbouring Benin, Patrice Talon, travelled into Niger on Wednesday afternoon to examine the situation.
“All means will be used, if necessary, to restore constitutional order in Niger, but the ideal would be for everything to be done in peace and harmony,” Talon told reporters in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
The US demanded Bazoum’s release, while the European Union, United Nations, France, and others criticized the rebellion and expressed worry about the events.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Bazoum in the presidential palace on Wednesday, said the United States’ economic and security partnership with Niger was dependent on the continuity of democratic governance.
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