Parts of the military, the presidential guard, have been staging a coup in the West African country since Wednesday morning – but the situation has remained unclear more than 24 hours since the blockade of the presidential palace in the capital Niamey began. In the meantime, the The military has declared via Twitter and Facebook that they support the putschists’ demand for an end to President Mohamed Bazoum’s term in office.
In a televised speech, a colonel named Amadou Abdramane announced that President-elect Mohamed Bazoum had been arrested and removed from office. In addition, the institutions of the republic were suspended, the national borders were closed “until the situation stabilized” and a curfew was imposed.
Colonel Amadou Abdramane, in the presence of nine other uniformed military personnel, said that they had decided to “put an end to the regime”. Speaking on behalf of a “National Council for the Protection of the Fatherland,” they denounced the deteriorating security situation, weak economy and Bazoum’s governance.
The country is fighting jihadist violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands and is one of the West’s last allies in the Sahel region. Neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso have turned to other partners, including Russia.
Since independence in 1960, there have been multiple coups in Niger. Bazoum was elected to office two years ago in the country’s first peaceful transition of power. Most recently, according to a Nigerien official, there was an attempt at a coup in March when the president was in Turkey. The authorities have never commented on this publicly.
According to the Federal Ministry of Defence, around a dozen Bundeswehr soldiers are currently involved in the EU military mission EUMPM Niger. “We have received feedback that our soldiers are safe – that is the most important thing for us,” said a ministry spokesman. In addition, the Bundeswehr has maintained a logistics hub for the UN peacekeeping mission in neighboring Mali at Niamey Airport for ten years. According to the ministry, “around a hundred” German soldiers are currently on site.
According to journalists, demonstrators who wanted to express their support for the head of state gathered in the center of the capital Niamey. Some tried to get to the president’s official residence but were warned off by the presidential guard with warning shots, according to reporters from the AFP news agency.
President Mohamed Bazoum promised his countrymen on Thursday that they would uphold “democracy and freedom”. “All hard-won achievements will be preserved,” he wrote on Twitter. Former Nigerien Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou called for the “attempted coup” not to be supported.
“We are the legitimate government,” he told broadcaster France 24. “It is not the entire army that is taking part in the attempted coup,” he said. He appealed to all Democrats in the country to fight back against the “disgraceful action that would set our country back a decade and block progress”.
The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, the EU, the UN, the USA and the West African Economic Community Ecowas unanimously condemn “the attempt by parts of the military to overturn Niger’s constitutional democratic order. We are following the events in Niger with great concern,” it said for example in the German Foreign Ministry.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted: “The EU condemns any attempt to destabilize democracy and undermine Niger’s stability.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed” by President Bazoum’s arrest. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ecowas are calling for the head of state’s “immediate release”. The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, accused the Presidential Guard of acting “in a total betrayal of their republican duty”.
Sources: AFP, DPA, France 24, Josep Borrell on Twitter, Federal Foreign Office
This article was updated at 1:40 p.m., d.Red.
