General claims leadership of Niger
President’s fate after ouster remains unclear
ABIDJAN — The commander of the presidential guard in Niger claimed the leadership of the West African country with a televised address Friday, two days after his military unit detained the democratically elected president and threw into uncertainty the future of a key Western ally in the region.
“We have decided to intervene and seize our responsibilities,” General Abdourahmane Tchiani, who goes by the first name Omar, said on state television, where he was identified on screen as the president of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country. “We can’t continue with the same approaches.”
Niger, a poor country rich in uranium, lies in the Sahel, the arid region south of the Sahara that has faced growing insecurity amid the worsening effects of climate change, political instability, and armed insurgencies. The United States has 1,100 troops and two drone bases in Niger, and France, the former colonial power, more than 1,500 troops.
The military takeover in Niger is the sixth in West Africa in less than three years, following in the steps of Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali, and threatening to upend efforts in the region to fight Islamic insurgencies by groups affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
An aide to President Mohamed Bazoum and analysts said in interviews in the last two days that the president had been planning to remove Tchiani as leader of the presidential guard.
Tchiani, however, said his soldiers had unseated Bazoum because of poor management of the economy and the fight against the militants.
While saying that he appreciated the “support of our external partners” — an apparent reference to the United States and European countries — he also faulted Niger’s leadership for not partnering with the military juntas in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, which have moved close to Russia in recent years.
“The current security approach hasn’t enabled us to secure our country,” he said.
He did not say anything about Bazoum, whose fate remained unclear Friday morning. A Western military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said members of the presidential guard were still detaining the president with his family.
Niger, a country of 26 million and the world’s third poorest, according to the United Nations, has also been a favored recipient of humanitarian aid and Western funding as one of the last democracies run by a civilian president in the region.
The future of these efforts now appears to be in doubt.
Hours before Tchiani’s television address Friday, the streets of Niamey, the capital, remained calm, with banks closed but many businesses open. The generals supporting the coup had closed the country’s borders and ordered the suspension of political activities. A nighttime curfew remained in place.
The United States, the United Nations, and the West African economic bloc, known as ECOWAS, have all condemned the military takeover. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who spoke with Bazoum on Thursday, called for his immediate release.
France said in a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry on Friday afternoon that it did not recognize the transitional authorities led by Tchiani.
In Niamey on Thursday, hundreds of protesters had gathered in support of the military. Some shouted “Bazoum has fallen, we’re free,” in Zarma, one of the languages spoken in Niger. Others waved Russian flags in a scene reminiscent of previous coups in Burkina Faso and Mali, two countries Tchiani vowed to work more closely with.
Military officers in Mali have partnered with Russia’s Wagner mercenary company to fight Islamic insurgents. The prime minister of Burkina Faso traveled to Moscow a few months after a military junta seized power there.
A shift in alliances could have major implications for Western countries and international bodies. The UN has planned to use Niger as a logistical hub for the withdrawal of its 13,000-personnel peacekeeping operation in neighboring Mali, which is scheduled to depart at the end of the year. France depends on Niger’s uranium mines for about 15 percent of the resources needed to fuel its nuclear power plants.
Some of the pro-military protesters on Thursday set off to the headquarters of Bazoum’s political party where they vandalized dozens of cars, stole refrigerators, tables, and other goods inside the party’s building, before setting it on fire.