The leaders of the military coup in Niger said the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, could stage an imminent military intervention in the capital of the Sahel country.
Speaking on Saturday ahead of an ECOWAS crisis summit on Niger, the junta said: “The aim of this meeting is to approve a plan of aggression against Niger, in the form of an imminent military intervention in Niamey, in cooperation with African countries who are not members of the regional body and certain Western nations.”
The African Union has given the military in Niger two weeks to restore “constitutional authority”.
It condemned the coup in “the strongest terms possible” and expressed deep concern over the “alarming resurgence” of military overthrows in Africa.
The United States — which has about 1,000 troops in Niger — has offered Bazoum Washington’s steadfast support and warned those detaining him that they were “threatening years of successful cooperation and hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance”.
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Landlocked Niger often ranks last in the United Nations’ Human Development Index, despite vast deposits of uranium.
It has had a turbulent political history since gaining independence in 1960, with four coups as well as numerous other attempts — including two previously against Bazoum.
General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the chief of Niger’s powerful presidential guard who took power after a military coup, is an army veteran who has foiled similar uprisings in the restive West African nation.
Tchiani, 59, has shunned the limelight despite a stellar military career which saw him lead the elite 700-member unit from 2011 up until now.
“He is not well known outside military circles. He is a man in the background, powerful,” said Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, a researcher with the International Crisis Group think tank.
On Friday, Tchiani declared himself leader after staging a takeover that began on Wednesday when his presidential guards seized President Mohamed Bazoum and sequestered him in the presidential palace.
Niger is an extremely poor nation but with vast uranium deposits. It has suffered four coups since independence from France in 1960 and several other failed putsch attempts and is currently in the throes of jihadist violence like its neighbours.
Bazoum — a key ally of the West in fighting militancy in sub-Saharan Africa — was the first elected leader to succeed another since independence.
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Tchiani is a staunch ally of former president Mahamadou Issoufou, Bazoum’s predecessor, who appointed him head of the presidential guards in 2011.
Bazoum kept him in the job after taking over from Issoufou, who served two terms, but relations between them deteriorated in the past months, according to sources close to Bazoum.
They told AFP that Bazoum had been considering replacing Tchiani as the head of the presidential guard.
Tchiani meanwhile began shunning “official ceremonies and activities” of the President and sent his deputy Colonel Ibroh Amadou Bacharou, also a member of the new junta, to represent him, a source close to Bazoum said.
AFP