What’s Behind the Niger Coup?

 By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

People following news from Africa know that the Niger military recently mounted a coup against a democratically elected president. Mohamed Bazoum has been held by troops from the presidential guard since July 26.

“We, the defence and security forces,” Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane announced, “have decided to put an end to the regime you know. This follows the continuing deterioration of the security situation, and poor economic and social governance.” The coup leaders were calling themselves the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP).

This is nothing new. Niger has experienced four coups since independence from France in 1960, as well as numerous attempted coups. Bazoum has been a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militancy in West Africa. Yet many Nigeriens supported his overthrow and have looked to Russia. Why?

Allegations that he was a puppet for French interests were used to legitimise his removal from power, and five military deals with France have since been revoked by the junta, now led by General Abdourahmane Tchiani. Partly as a result, the coup was followed by popular protests and attacks on the French embassy.

On Aug. 6, an estimated 30,000 people gathered in the capital Niamey at a stadium, some draped in Russian flags, even as the threat of regional military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) loomed. “Long live Putin,” protesters chanted, as well as “Down with France.”

While the Russian mercenary Wagner group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin welcomed Niger’s coup, the group hasn’t claimed involvement. But if Niger contracts Wagner, the uranium-rich nation could see more instability, human rights violations, authoritarianism and the suppression of democratic protests.

Two neighbouring countries, Mali and Burkina Faso, have also experienced coups triggered by jihadist uprisings in recent years, and there too, those who took over have been receptive to entreaties from Moscow. At the Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum in St. Petersburg July 27-28, leaders from the two declared their support for President Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine.

The country of some 25 million people is one of the poorest in the world and resentment towards France runs deep. Seven of the nine Francophone states in West Africa still use the CFA franc, which is guaranteed by France, as their currency, a legacy of French economic policy.

France also forged defence agreements that saw it regularly intervene militarily on behalf of pro-French leaders to keep them in power. François-Xavier Verschave, a prominent French economist, coined the term Françafrique to refer to this neocolonial relationship.

“In many of these countries, the militaries are seen as leaders upholding their nations’ sovereignty and independence, as opposed to elected governments, which tend to be puppets of the West and have done nothing to challenge the neocolonial order throughout the years,” Ndongo Samba Sylla, a Senegalese economist, on Aug. 8 explained to Thomas Fazi, an UnHerd columnist.

But the French-led international response to Islamist insurgencies in the Sahel region has failed to enable West African governments to regain control of their territories. This created the impression that French support was more of a liability than a blessing. In Mali, heavily armed Russian Wagner mercenaries are now helping the military regime to fight jihadist insurgents.

Kiari Liman Tinguiri, Niger’s ambassador in Washington, told Ishaan Tharoor, a Washington Post analyst, that Niger was supposed to mark a turning of the page in his country’s complicated role in the region.

“France invested in the Bazoum government to be a model of new types of partnerships with African countries, on a more equal footing,” he indicated on Aug. 9, yet now, the possibility of Niger going the same way as Mali and Burkina Faso “would further consolidate a Sahelian arch of instability, under significant Russian influence.”

Some analysts have also wondered whether the overthrow of President Bazoum, who is from the minority Arab community, might create ethnic tensions in Niger. General Tchiani is from the majority Hausa ethnic group, and comes from Tillabéri region, a traditional recruiting ground for the military. But this currently seems unlikely.