Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum was held by the presidential guard in Niamey on Wednesday after “talks” failed and the army delivered “an ultimatum” to the guard, according to an How Africa source close to the presidency.
“At the end of the talks, the presidential guard refused to release the president, the army gave him an ultimatum”, declared this source on condition of anonymity, following a “movement of mood” of members of the presidential guard who blocked access to the presidency in Niamey.
In a message posted on Twitter, renamed “X”, the presidency of Niger indicates that on Wednesday morning, “elements of the presidential guard (GP) engaged in an anti-republican mood movement and tried in vain to obtain the support of the national armed forces and the national guard”.
“The army and the national guard are ready to attack the elements of the GP involved in this mood swing if they do not return to better feelings”, adds the presidency, affirming that “the President of the Republic and his family are doing well. ”
Since its independence in 1960, Niger, a former French colony and a poor country plagued by Islamist violence, has been distinguished by putschs and attempted coups.
The reason for the guards’ rage was never revealed.
Access to the presidential complex in Niamey was restricted, despite the fact that there was no unusual military deployment or firing in the neighborhood, and traffic was regular, according to reports.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) condemned what it dubbed a “attempted coup d’Etat” against a democratically elected leader in a statement issued from Nigeria.
The bloc and the international community will hold all those involved accountable for the safety of Bazoum, his family, government officials, and the general public, it warned.
Coup history
Since its independence from France in 1960, the landlocked Sahel state has seen four coups and countless additional attempts at power, including one against Bazoum himself.
The country’s most recent coup took place in February 2010, when then-President Mamadou Tandja was deposed.
According to a security source at the time, there was an attempted coup just days before Bazoum’s inauguration in April 2021.
Several persons were arrested, including the accused ringleader, Sani Gourouza, an air force captain.
He was apprehended in neighboring Benin and surrendered to Niger authorities.
Ousmane Cisse, a former interior minister in a transitional military government from 2010 to 2011, was arrested in April 2022 for his suspected role.
In February of this year, he was acquitted, but five others, including Gourouza, were sentenced to 20 years in prison.
According to a Niger official, a second attempt to depose Bazoum occurred in March this year “while the president… was in Turkey.” An arrest was made.
The authorities have never publicly commented on the incident.
In January 2018, a military court convicted nine soldiers and a civilian to prison terms ranging from five to fifteen years for attempting to depose Bazoum’s predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou, in 2015.
General Souleymane Salou, a former army chief of staff and member of the coup that ousted Tandja in 2010, was among those condemned.
Poverty and jihadism
Niger, located in West Africa’s arid Sahel, is two-thirds desert and consistently ranks at the bottom, if not at the bottom, of the UN’s Human Development Index, a measure of affluence.
It has a rapidly growing population of 22.4 million people, owing to a birthrate of seven children per woman.
The country is dealing with two terrorist campaigns: one in the southwest, which rushed in from neighboring Mali in 2015, and another in the southeast, which involves jihadists from northeastern Nigeria.
Hundreds of thousands of people have abandoned their homes, exacerbating a humanitarian catastrophe and putting more burden on the economy.
The United States and France, who have military facilities in Niger, have provided training and logistical support to the country’s military.
France’s anti-jihadist efforts in the Sahel were restructured when French personnel left Mali and Burkina Faso following political squabbles with those countries.