The Niger general who staged a coup on Friday declared himself the new leader of the African nation and said that any foreign military intervention would lead to chaos.
General Abdourahamane Tchiani, head of the Presidential Guard since 2011, appeared on state television, saying he was the “president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.”
The general, who is in his 50s and had previously kept out of public life, presented the coup as a response to “the degradation of the security situation” linked to militant bloodshed.
Photo by ORTN Tele Sahel / AFP
He questioned “the sense and scope of a security approach to the fight against terrorism which excludes any real collaboration with Burkina Faso and Mali” — neighbors that face similar threats.
The putschists, who have faced international condemnation for taking power from a democratically elected president, also warned of “the consequences that will flow from any foreign military intervention.”
On the third day since Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum was detained, former colonial master France demanded the restoration of the government, saying that it “does not recognize” the putschists, and calling Bazoum the “sole president.”
The UN Security Council in a statement late on Friday said that it “condemned the efforts to unconstitutionally change the legitimate government” in the country.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered Bazoum Washington’s “unflagging” support and warned those detaining him that “hundreds of millions of dollars of assistance” was at risk, the US Department of State said.
“Secretary Blinken underscored that the United States will continue to work to ensure the full restoration of constitutional order and democratic rule in Niger,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Washington had previously said it might “cease security and other cooperation,” although its about 1,000 troops stationed in the country would remain in place for now.
West African leaders are today to meet in the capital, Abuja, to discuss the coup, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said.
“ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] and the international community would do everything to defend democracy and ensure democratic governance continues to take firm root in the region,” Tinubu, who is also the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States regional bloc, said in a statement.
The EU threatened to cut aid to Niamey after what it said was a “serious attack on stability and democracy.”
Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who remains active despite leading a failed mutiny against the Russian army’s top brass last month, hailed Niger’s military coup as good news and offered his fighters’ services to bring order.
A voice message on Telegram app channels associated with Wagner that they said was Prigozhin did not claim involvement in the coup, but described it as a moment of long overdue liberation from Western colonizers and made what looked like a pitch for his fighters to help keep order.
“What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonizers. With colonizers who are trying to foist their rules of life on them and their conditions and keep them in the state that Africa was in hundreds of years ago,” said the message, posted on Thursday evening.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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