2023-07-31 20:30:15
Niger is entering a decisive week for its future, a few days after the coup that overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum. In the streets, the population supports the military, but international pressure is very strong, while the country could fall into the Russian sphere of influence. Is the coup over in Niamey? What are the sanctions aimed at the new Nigerien regime? Where are relations with France? 20 Minutes make the point.
Is the military junta firmly established?
After a vagueness in the first hours, when the army threatened the presidential guard to intervene by force to release Mohamed Bazoum, the putsch finally gave birth to a National Council for the safeguard of the fatherland. General Abdourahamane Tiani, head of the president-elect’s close guard, took the lead. All of the country’s armed forces seem to support the putschists.
In the street, however, large demonstrations of support overflowed. Cars were set on fire on Thursday and the French embassy was repeatedly targeted by projectile jets. Another demonstration in support of the junta took place on Monday in Zinder, 850 km east of Niamey. On the political side, four ministers, a former minister and the leader of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) were arrested. These arrests come at a time when the junta called in a press release “all former ministers and directors of institutions to return to the various ministerial departments and directorates all the official vehicles made available to them”, no later than Monday at 12 p.m. A sign that the appointment of a transitional government is approaching?
What are the sanctions weighing on Niger?
The international community, especially Europe and some African countries, widely condemned the coup. Like France before it, Germany announced on Monday that it was suspending its development aid and budget support to this very poor country. Spain also suspended its aid. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Niger is a member, announced an economic blockade and demanded the “full return to constitutional order” within a week. ECOWAS says it is ready to resort to “the use of force” to intervene.
“The sanctions will hurt our country very badly,” repeated Nigerien Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou in an interview with the France 24 channel on Sunday. the African Union has also set a deadline of fifteen days to “restore constitutional authority”, and Washington ensures that the coup jeopardizes the “partnership” between the United States and Niger. For its part, the Kremlin calls for “restraint” and a return to “legality”, without clearly saying whether it supports President Mohamed Bazoum or the military now in power.
Where are relations between France and Niger?
In addition to support for the putschists, a slogan comes up with insistence in the demonstrations in Niamey. “Down with France, long live Russia!” Thousands of pro-coup demonstrators gathered this Sunday in front of the French embassy in Niamey, before being dispersed by tear gas canisters. Some wanted to enter the building, others ripped off the plaque displaying “French Embassy in Niger”, before trampling it on the tarmac and replacing it with Russian and Nigerien flags.
“Anyone who attacks French nationals, the army, diplomats and rights of way would see France respond immediately and intractably,” warned the Elysée, while more than 500 French people are in Niger, in addition to the military and embassy staff. In return, the junta quickly adopted a rhetoric hostile to France to mobilize support. “France, with the complicity of certain Nigeriens, held a meeting at the staff of the National Guard of Niger, to obtain authorizations” in order to “intervene militarily” and restore Mohamed Bazoum, indicates a press release from the junta. “It’s false,” proclaims the head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna. “We have to dismantle the intox and not fall into the trap,” adds the Minister of Foreign Affairs on BFM TV.
“These anti-French, or anti-French politics, discourses have existed for a long time, however, they are no longer restricted to the intellectual elites as in the past, but have penetrated very strongly into the popular strata, especially urban ones”, according to a study by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) published in June. Conspiracy theories, such as the opinion that the French military would come to arm the jihadists, also find wide support in a country where the literacy rate barely exceeds 30%.
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