France does not consider the coup in Niger to be “final”, where a group of soldiers have been holding the “democratically elected” president, Mohamed Bazoum, since Wednesday night, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday, saying that she is not losing hope of restoring him, although apparently events are going in the other direction. The Nigerien army ended up offering its support to the soldiers who carried out the coup yesterday and pro-coup protesters took to the streets violently.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned this Friday from Papua New Guinea “with the greatest firmness the military coup” underway in Niger, “dangerous” for the region, and called for “the release” of President Mohamed Bazoum. Colonna advanced that the countries of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) will meet on Sunday to discuss the possibility of imposing sanctions. The president of Benin led a delegation that was originally supposed to travel to the country to start negotiations, but details about the dialogue are unknown.
While it remains to be seen whether the uprising succeeds, the geopolitical importance of what happened is not peripheral, it is central: Niger is the last stable bastion close to France and the United States in a region besieged for a decade by jihadist violence (both the Islamic State such as Al Qaeda are present on its territory) and the growing presence of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group. Coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, which have swung pro-Russia and expelled French soldiers in the past year, limited the Western area of ??influence in the troubled Sahel.
Niger is also key to Spain and southern Europe: some of the main migratory routes to Europe pass through its territory and the government of Niamey had collaborated firmly until now to try to stop the migratory flow.
In Niamey, the capital, the chief of the General Staff, General Abdou Sidikou Issa, declared on Thursday the army’s support for the soldiers who led the uprising, in order to “avoid a deadly confrontation between the different forces.” Meanwhile, the coup leaders accused France, whose 1,500 troops are in Niger, of violating border closures the junta had announced late Wednesday when a military plane landed at Niamey’s international airport. They called “once and for all for strict compliance with the provisions.”
The board, calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland (CLSP), suspended the institutions on Wednesday, closed the land and air borders, and instituted a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. It also suspended the activities of political parties. The new strong man is General Omar Tchiani, head of the Presidential Guard, and whose confrontation with the president had intensified in recent weeks. Tchiani appeared on television this Friday to proclaim himself president of the CLSP and justify the coup due to “the deterioration of the security situation” in the country. President Bazoum, elected two years ago in Niger’s first peaceful and democratic transfer of power since its independence from France in 1960, has not announced his resignation.
At the same time, on the street, several people were injured on Thursday in Niamey during a violent pro-coup protest, in which demonstrators (some draped in Russian flags) stormed the headquarters of the president’s party – the Niger Party for Democracy and Socialism. (PNDS) – and burned twenty vehicles. “We are tired of being the target of men in the woods… Down with the French! Now we are going to collaborate with Russia, ”he added. A demonstration also took place in Dosso, about a hundred kilometers from the capital.
The Nigerian Ministry of the Interior reported on Thursday that all public demonstrations were prohibited and warned that it will apply “all legal measures” against offenders, after the violent pro-coup demonstration caused several injuries in the country’s capital.
