APA-Niamey (Niger) The situation in post-coup Niger is as fluid as fluidity could get – a detained president still tweeting his defiance against soldiers who claimed to have deposed him on Wednesday.
Mohamed Bazoum wrote on Twitter a day after he was supposedly ousted from power that “the hard-won achievements” under his two-year administration will be protected.
He added defiantly: ”All Nigeriens who love democracy and freedom will see to it.”
Bazoum’s Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou has exhorted the president’s supporters to take to the streets in opposition against the coup which has drawn widespread condemnation from the African Union, the West African regional bloc Ecowas, the European Union, former colonial power France and the United States.
In a second tweet, the head of Niger’s diplomatic service in the government “deposed” by the military a few hours earlier, stated that “this adventure with nefarious objectives will fail because it will come up against an outcry from democratic and progressive forces throughout Niger.”
He proclaimed himself to be the “interim head of government,” calling on “all democrats” to “put an
end to this adventure that is a danger for our country.”
The head of the army has come out in support of the coup.
General Abdou Sidikou Issa, appointed last April by President Bazoum to replace General Salifou Mody, added that he “wants to avoid a deadly confrontation between the different forces (…) and preserve cohesion within the defense and security forces (FDS),” including the presidential guard and its chief, General Omar Tchiani, considered to be the leader of the coup.
General Tchiani was not seen among the group of soldiers who declared on national television that they had seized power from President Bazoum, unlike his deputy, Colonel Adamou Ibro.
But there may also be indications that not all sections of the security forces are with the putschists.
That some members of the ousted government could still issue statements apparently defying the new status quo provokes questions about who is really in charge of the country which has seen several coups since independence in 1960.
Mediation efforts are still underway as a Nigerian envoy flies to the capital Niamey for dialogue with the coupists who have since announced dissolving the constitution, shutting down the country’s borders, introducing a dusk-to dawn curfew and suspending state institutions like the national assembly.
The West African bloc has sent Beninese President Patrice Talon to talk to both sides of the post-coup drama playing out in Niger.
”It is impossible to tell with any degree of certainty who is really in charge of Niger, one day after the coup” a former official of the deposed government who wants to remain anonymous says.
Meanwhile, people are staying off the streets of Niamey where heavy rain had descended, putting a temporary damper on any protests from Bazoum supporters who were dispersed on Wednesday as they mobilised to state their opposition to the insurrection.
However, this far from suggests that the coup does not have civilians supporting it.
As a divided country, many may welcome Bazoum’s overthrow pointing to the struggling economy and the security crisis caused by a protracted jihadist insurgency as genuine reasons to bring change at the top.
The biggest losers in this is the United States and Bazoum’s allies in the West who have come to rely on his country to fight jihadism which is blighting the Sahel region as a whole.
Niger, a country rich in uranium has been the focal point of a multinational force against Sahel insurgents who have been hard to dislodge in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are incidentally under military juntas.
It is hard to see how the coup would be reversed even after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave Mr. Bazoum Washington’s “unwavering” support.
WN/as/APA