The military coup in Niger

Militärkuppen i Niger

Grannländernas juntor besöker Nigers kuppmakare

Burkina Faso coup leader Ibrahim Traore in October 2022. Kilaye Bationo / AP  

 

The military coup in Niger  

Juntas of neighboring countries visit Niger's coup plotters  

 

Burkina Faso and Mali send delegations to the coup plotters in neighboring Niger. The goal is to show "solidarity with the brotherly people of Niger," Mali's military government writes in a statement, according to AFP.  

 

The two neighboring countries have previously said that they regard a military intervention against Niger as a declaration of war. Both Mali and Burkina Faso are themselves governed by the military after coups in 2020 and 2022.  

 

At midnight, the deadline expired for the coup plotters to return power to Niger's democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum. Otherwise, the West African organization Ecowas has threatened to intervene militarily. What happens now, however, is unclear.  

 

Generals arrive at the arena in Niamey on Sunday, where tens of thousands of people gathered to show their support for the coup plotters. AFP  

The deadline has expired - Niger closes the airspace  

 

The deadline for the coup plotters in Niger has now expired - without power having been handed over to the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum, writes AFP.  

 

Instead, the military junta closes the country's airspace. Any attempt to violate airspace will result in a "forceful and immediate response," according to a statement.  

 

The West African organization Ecowas did not rule out a military intervention if the coup plotters did not surrender before the end of the week. Despite that, the New York Times writes that most analysts assess that an armed conflict is unlikely in the near term.  

 

The threat has caused many residents of the impoverished country to rally behind the military. On Sunday, tens of thousands of people gathered in an arena in the capital Niamey and shouted the name of the leading coup plotter, Abdourahmane Tchiani.

 

French soldiers in Niger 2021. Jerome Delay / AP  

 

The military coup in Niger 

Analysis: Are the coups actually France's fault?  

 

Niger is the fifth French colony in Africa to fall into the hands of coup plotters in a relatively short time, after Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Chad. In fact, 78 percent of the coups in the region since 1990 have occurred in former French colonies. Is it all basically France's fault? ask Leonard Mbulle-Nziege and Nic Cheeseman in an analysis in the BBC.  

 

Both yes and no, is the answer. What was clear when the countries became independent was that the French continued to interfere in the countries' governance, more so than, for example, the British. In many cases, it strengthened the emergence of strong and authoritarian figures.  

 

At the same time, the French cannot bear all the blame, the analysis continues. Several other countries have invested time and energy in their governments, and each coup has had different domestic explanations.  

 

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) is playing a "dangerous game" in Niger.  

That's what France 24's employee James André says after Ecowa's deadline for the coup plotters expired at midnight. Ecowas threatened to intervene militarily if the coup plotters did not give up, and the question is how Ecowas can save face if they don't. 

 

- Everyone is waiting and watching. Everyone's credibility is at stake, he says.

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