Follow how the news about the coup in Niger is unfolding.
What’s behind the Niger coup?
After last week’s surprise coup in Niger, the Russian military group Wagner is taking advantage of the chaos and anti-French sentiment, says journalist Garé Amadou in Niamey, while ordinary Nigeriens are preparing for the worst
Read more the Guardian
How the Niger coup unfolded
What started as an internally-driven coup in Niger on July 26, West Africa’s seventh in three years, has rapidly come to threaten Western interests. The fast post-coup developments mirror those in Mali and Burkina Faso and highlight the difficulty — and perhaps impossibility, in the short term anyway — of sustaining the West’s hard security and geostrategic interests and simultaneously its commitment to democracy in various parts of Africa.
Read more on The Brookings Institution
Did the Niger coup just succeed? And other questions answered about what’s next in the Sahel
It’s tough to tell which is more important: what did or did not happen. First, what happened: On August 10, a military junta declared a new government in Niger. This came after the junta, led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, seized power on July 26 from Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who remains under house arrest.
Read more on The Atlantic Council
ECOWAS Orders ‘Standby Force’ to Niger
Africa’s strongest regional bloc risks looking weak in the face of rising junta support. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said on Thursday that it had ordered the deployment of a “standby force” to Niger to restore constitutional order. What that force will entail, though, is still unclear. No timeline or other specifics were given. The announcement came after the bloc convened an emergency meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, to discuss the crisis in Niger and its previous threat of militarily intervening if the coup’s leaders did not reinstate Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum by last Sunday.
Thousands of Niger coup supporters protest near French military base
Thousands of Niger coup supporters rallied near a French military base in Niger on Friday. The protesters were heard shouting “Down with France, down with ECOWAS”. Earlier in the day, the European Union and the African Union criticised the worsening conditions of detained Niger President Mohamed Bazoum and called for his immediate release.
Read More on France24
