Mutinous soldiers claim to have overthrown Niger's president, army supports them
Foreign affairs minister says democratically elected government rejects the coup attempt
Niger's president defiantly declared Thursday that democracy would prevail, a day after mutinous soldiers detained him and announced they had seized power in a coup over the West African country's deteriorating security situation.
The soldiers said all institutions had been suspended and security forces were managing the situation. They urged external partners not to interfere after surrounding the presidential palace of President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday.
The government said it will never accept their rule and has called for the population to reject it.
"There was an attempted coup, but of course we cannot accept it," Foreign Affairs Minister Hassoumi Massoudou told news network France 24 in an interview Thursday.
"We call on all Nigerien democratic patriots to stand up as one to say no to this factious action that tends to set us back decades and block the progress of our country," he said.
Massoudou also called for Bazoum's unconditional release and said talks were ongoing.
"The hard-won achievements will be safeguarded. All Nigeriens who love democracy and freedom will see to it," the account of Bazoum tweeted early Thursday morning.
But Niger's army has declared allegiance to the defence and security forces that overthrew Bazoum, in order to avoid fighting within the armed forces, it said in a statement on Thursday, signed by the army chief of staff.
'Anti-republican madness'
While many people in the capital of Niamey went about their usual business, it remained unclear who was in control of the country and which side the majority might support.
In a statement Wednesday, a group of Nigerien political groups said the situation was "suicidal and anti-republican madness."
The mutinous soldiers, who call themselves the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, took to state television on Wednesday. Seated at a table in front of nine other officers, air force Col. Major Amadou Abdramane said aerial and land borders were closed and a curfew was imposed until the situation stabilized.
"This is as a result of the continuing degradation of the security situation, the bad economic and social governance," he said.
Before the announcement, hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital, Niamey, and chanted "No coup d'etat" while marching in support of the president.
"We are here to show the people that we are not happy about this movement going on, just to show these military people that they can't just take the power like this," protester Mohammed Sidi said. "We are a democratic country, we support democracy and we don't need this kind of movement."
U.S. urges president's release
Western countries, including Canada, strongly condemned the attempted seizure of power.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the immediate release of Bazoum.
"Whether this constitutes a coup technically or not, I can't say. That's for the lawyers to say. But what it clearly constitutes is an effort to seize power by force and to disrupt the constitution," Blinken told a news conference Thursday morning in Wellington, New Zealand.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who spoke to Bazoum on Wednesday afternoon, condemned any effort to seize power by force "in the strongest terms" and called on "all actors involved to exercise restraint and to ensure the protection of constitutional order," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The African Union and West African regional bloc ECOWAS also released condemnations. African Union chair Azali Assoumani on Thursday called for the release of Bazoum and his family.
The coup was reportedly sparked because Bazoum was allegedly planning to fire the head of the presidential guard, Gen. Omar Tchiani, Niger analysts say.
Military experts say some of the people who appeared on state television were high-ranking officers, including Gen. Moussa Salaou Barmou, the head of Niger's special forces who has a strong relationship with the United States.
Russia's Wagner a potential factor
The military takeover, which possibly marks the seventh coup in the West and Central Africa region since 2020, could further complicate Western efforts to help countries in the Sahel region fight a jihadist insurgency that has spread from Mali over the past decade.
Land-locked Niger, a former French colony, has become a pivotal ally for Western powers seeking to help fight the insurgencies, but they are facing growing acrimony from the new juntas in charge in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Canada is closely following the situation in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Niger?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Niger</a>. We join the international community, including ECOWAS and the AU, in condemning actions against the elected government. We call for President Bazoum’s release and for respect of democratic institutions.
—@CanadaFPNiger is also a key ally of the European Union in the fight against irregular migration from sub-Saharan Africa.
Bazoum's election was the first democratic transition of power in a state that has witnessed four military coups since independence from France in 1960. There was also a thwarted coup attempt in March 2021.
Bazoum was seen by many as the West's last hope for partnership in the Sahel after Mali turned away from former colonial power France and instead sought support from the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Wagner appears to be making inroads in Burkina Faso as well.
On Thursday, several hundred people gathered in the capital and chanted support for Wagner while waving Russian flags. Later, they began throwing rocks at a passing politician's car.
Wagner's head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently led a brief mutiny against Russia's Kremlin over Ukraine war tactics, weighed in on Thursday. He described the developments as part of Niger's fight against the "colonizers."
"If Mohamed Bazoum resigns from the presidency, Niger will probably move to the top of the list of countries where the Wagner Group will seek to expand," said Flavien Baumgartner, an Africa analyst at Dragonfly, a security and political risk consultancy.
Wagner already had its sights set on Niger, in part because it's a large producer of uranium sought after by Russia, said Baumgartner.
The United States says it has spent around $500 million since 2012 to help Niger boost its security. Germany announced in April that it would take part in a three-year European military mission aimed at improving the country's military.
With files from Reuters