Chief of the Niger’s Presidential Guard Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani was named the brand new chief of the nation following a navy takeover, in response to state media Friday.
The chief of the Presidential Guard has been named “president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland,” an announcement mentioned, with elected President Mohamed Bazoum detained by military putschists since Wednesday morning.
Former colonial energy France mentioned hours earlier that it didn’t contemplate the coup “final,” including there was time for plotters to heed worldwide calls to go away democratically-elected Bazoum in workplace.
But Gen. Tchiani, head of the Presidential Guard since 2011, learn an announcement on nationwide TV because the “president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.”
The normal offered the coup as a response to “the degradation of the security situation” linked to terrorist bloodshed.
French President Emmanuel Macron described the occasions in Niamey as a coup affecting the broader Sahel area as Western powers scramble to protect a key ally within the terror-stricken area.
“This coup is completely illegitimate and profoundly dangerous, for Nigeriens, for Niger and for the whole region,” Macron mentioned, calling for Bazoum’s launch.
Gen. Tchiani mentioned that whereas Bazoum had sought to persuade people who “all is going well … the harsh reality (is) a pile of dead, displaced, humiliation and frustration.”
“The security approach today has not brought security to the country despite heavy sacrifices,” he mentioned.
Bazoum and his household have been confined since Wednesday morning to their residence on the presidential palace positioned throughout the Guard’s navy camp.
He is claimed to be in good well being and has been capable of speak by phone to different heads of state together with Macron.
The Guard’s chiefs staged the coup and on Thursday they received broad military assist.
Armed forces chief Gen. Abdou Sidikou Issa swung his weight behind the putschists saying it was “in order to avoid a deadly confrontation.”
The newest goal of a coup in Africa’s turbulent Sahel, Bazoum has tried to face his floor as condemnations swelled from African and worldwide organizations, allies Germany and the United States, in addition to France.
“The hard-won (democratic) gains will be safeguarded,” Bazoum mentioned on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna had held out hope for Bazoum’s place.
“If you hear me talking about an attempted coup, it’s because we don’t consider things final,” she mentioned. “There is still a way out if those responsible listen to the international community.”
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) would maintain a summit “probably on Sunday,” the place “possible sanctions could be decided”, Colonna mentioned.
Former colonial energy France, which has 1,500 troopers in Niger, would assist sanctions.
ECOWAS has demanded Bazoum’s “immediate release”, saying he “remains the legitimate and legal President of Niger.”
Pro-coup demonstrations
The landlocked state is likely one of the world’s poorest. Since gaining independence in 1960, it has seen 4 coups in addition to quite a few different makes an attempt – together with two beforehand towards Bazoum.
The 63-year-old is considered one of a dwindling group of elected presidents and pro-Western leaders within the Sahel, the place a terrorist insurgency has triggered coups in Mali and Burkina Faso.
Their juntas have compelled out French troops, and in Mali, the ruling navy has woven an in depth alliance with Russia.
“What happened in Niger is nothing more than the struggle of the people of Niger against colonizers, who tried to impose their own rules of life,” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to say Thursday evening in a message shared by a Russian physique linked to the mercenary group.
While the voice within the audio message resembles Prigozhin’s, AFP was unable to substantiate its authenticity.
The coup plotters had Thursday urged “the population to remain calm,” after younger males ransacked Bazoum’s PNDS celebration headquarters, setting fireplace to autos.
They had cut up off from 1,000 individuals, largely children, who had demonstrated within the capital.
Some held Russian flags and chanted anti-French and pro-Moscow slogans.
“We want the same thing as in Mali and Burkina Faso,” shouted 19-year-old pupil Alassane Alhousseini.
“We want to take our destiny in our own hands.”
Despite the violence and a military ban on demonstrations, a coalition of events against Bazoum have known as for a present of assist Friday for the “motivations” of the putschists “while disapproving of all change by force.”
Bazoum took workplace after elections two years in the past, in Niger’s first peaceable transition since independence.
The nation of twenty-two million is two-thirds desert and incessantly ranks on the backside of the U.N.’s Human Development Index.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
