‘Long live Putin’, Niger coup backers storm French embassy
Attacks on France and its interests would not be tolerated, says President Emmanuel Macron
NIAMEY: Thousands of supporters of the junta that took over Niger in a coup this week marched through the streets of the capital on Sunday denouncing the country’s former colonial power and lighting a door at the French Embassy ablaze before the army broke up the crowd.
Black smoke could be seen across the city from the burning of the door. The Russian mercenary group Wagner is operating in neighbouring Mali, and President Vladimir Putin would like to expand his country’s influence in the region.
The new junta’s leaders have not said whether they would move toward Moscow or stick with Niger’s Western partners.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that attacks on France and its interests would not be tolerated. Anyone who attacked French nationals, the army, diplomats and French authorities would see an immediate response, he said.
Niger, a French colony until 1960, had been seen as the West’s last reliable partner battling jihadists in Africa’s Sahel region.
France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with the Nigeriens. The United States and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.
At an emergency meeting Sunday in Abuja, Nigeria, the West African bloc known as ECOWAS said that it was suspending relations with Niger, and authorised the use of force if President Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated within a week.
The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the democratically elected government.
Members of the Niger military announced on Wednesday they had deposed Bazoum and on Friday named Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as the country’s new leader, adding Niger to a growing list of military regimes in West Africa’s Sahel region.
Some leaders of the mutiny said they overthrew Bazoum because he wasn’t able to secure the nation against growing jihadi violence. But some analysts and Nigeriens say that was a pretext for a takeover driven by internal power struggles. “We couldn’t expect a coup in Niger because there’s no social, political or security situation that would justify that the military take the power,” said Prof. Amad Hassane Boubacar, who teaches at the University of Niamey.
If ECOWAS imposes economic sanctions, which is what normally happens during coups, it could have a deep impact on Nigeriens, who live in the third-poorest country in the world, according to the latest UN data.