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The commander of Niger’s presidential guard claimed the management of the West African nation with a televised handle on Friday, two days after his army unit detained the democratically elected president and threw the way forward for a key Western ally within the area into uncertainty.
“We have now determined to intervene and seize our duties,” Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who goes by the primary identify, Omar, mentioned on state tv. “We are able to’t proceed with the identical approaches.”
Niger, a poor nation wealthy in uranium, lies within the Sahel, the arid area south of the Sahara that has confronted rising insecurity amid the worsening results of local weather change, political instability and armed insurgencies. The USA has 1,100 troops and two drone bases in Niger. France, the previous colonial energy, greater than 1,500 troops.
The army takeover in Niger is the sixth in West Africa in lower than three years, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali, and threatening to upend regional efforts to battle Islamist insurgencies by teams affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The coup, Niger’s fifth since gaining independence from France in 1960, might deal a deadly blow to the nation’s nascent democracy: It had its first peaceable, democratic transition of energy just a few years in the past when President Mohamed Bazoum took workplace from one other elected president.
An aide to Mr. Bazoum and analysts mentioned in interviews within the final two days that the president had been planning to take away Normal Tchiani because the presidential guard’s chief.
Normal Tchiani, nevertheless, mentioned his troopers had unseated Mr. Bazoum due to poor administration of the financial system and the battle towards militants.
Whereas saying he appreciated the “assist of our exterior companions” — an obvious reference to the US and European international locations — he additionally faulted Niger’s management for not partnering with the army juntas in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, which have moved near Russia lately.
“The present safety method hasn’t enabled us to safe our nation,” he mentioned.
A army officer later introduced on Friday that Niger’s Structure had been suspended and {that a} new transitional physique was taking cost of government and legislative powers. The officer mentioned Normal Tchiani can be the president of the brand new physique.
The final himself briefly appeared on nationwide tv, standing in a gaggle of army officers within the new transitional council, with cheerful music within the background.
A supply near Mr. Bazoum, talking on situation of anonymity, mentioned he was in good well being regardless of three days in detention, and that he nonetheless had entry to his phone.
“He and his household are a bargaining chip now,” mentioned Nathaniel Powell, an Africa analyst with Oxford Analytica, a threat evaluation agency based mostly in Britain.
Niger, a rustic of 26 million and the world’s third poorest, in keeping with the United Nations, has additionally been a popular recipient of humanitarian support and Western funding as one of many final democracies run by a civilian president within the area.
The way forward for these efforts now seems to be unsure. A adorned and influential official, Normal Tchiani, who’s 59, had been named as the pinnacle of the presidential guard in 2011 by Mr. Bazoum’s predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou.
Normal Tchiani joined the Nigerien army in 1985 and served in United Nations’ peacekeeping operations within the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Sudan. He was accused of collaborating in a coup try in 2015, however denied any involvement and finally remained near Mr. Issoufou, who named him basic in 2018 and stayed in energy till 2021, when Mr. Bazoum took workplace.
The presidential guard contains a whole lot of well-equipped and -trained troops, in keeping with Nigerien and Western safety analysts.
The USA, the United Nations and the West African financial bloc, often known as ECOWAS, have all condemned the army takeover, and the French Overseas Ministry mentioned in an announcement on Friday afternoon that it didn’t acknowledge new leaders of Niger.
A senior White Home spokesman, John Kirby, warned Friday that the US might finish monetary assist and safety cooperation for Niger if diplomacy isn’t capable of reverse the army takeover of the African nation. He mentioned the US and its allies have been “doing every little thing we are able to” to make sure that Mr. Bazoum stays the chief of Niger.
The streets of Niamey, the capital, remained principally calm following Normal Tchiani’s tv handle, with banks closed however many companies open. The generals supporting the coup had closed the nation’s borders, ordered political actions suspended and imposed a nighttime curfew.
Residents appeared divided over the takeover. Salifou Mahamdou, a garments vendor, mentioned that he welcomed the coup as a result of insecurity had lengthy slowed improvement. “Even when the army stays in energy without end, who cares, so long as they grant us safety,” he mentioned.
Aïcha Habibou, a 20-year-old nurse, mentioned she thought little would change. “At any time when there’s a coup,” she mentioned, “the officers give us the identical speech about change, however in addition they come to steal public cash.”
In Niamey on Thursday, a whole lot of demonstrators had gathered in assist of the army. Some shouted “Bazoum has fallen, we’re free.” Others waved Russian flags in a scene harking back to current coups in Burkina Faso and Mali.
Navy officers in Mali have partnered with Russia’s Wagner mercenary firm to battle Islamist insurgents, and Burkina Faso’s prime minister traveled to Moscow just a few months after a army junta.
A shift in alliances might have main implications for Western international locations and worldwide our bodies. The United Nations has deliberate to make use of Niger as a logistical hub for the withdrawal of its 13,000-personnel peacekeeping operation in Mali, which is scheduled to depart on the finish of the 12 months. France will depend on Niger’s uranium mines for about 15 p.c of the assets to gasoline its nuclear energy crops.
Mr. Powell known as Mr. Bazoum’s management top-of-the-line within the area, mixing a robust army response to safety crises with improvement tasks and partnerships with Western international locations.
Niger had taken benefit of the collapses of civilian order in Burkina Faso and Mali, he mentioned, to strengthen ties with the West. However he added that Western international locations working with Niger had turned a blind eye to long-running dysfunctions inside the nation’s army.
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington.
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