{"id":11330,"date":"2023-07-31T18:51:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T18:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11330"},"modified":"2023-07-31T18:51:41","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T18:51:41","slug":"nigers-coup-and-the-international-communitys-opposition-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=11330","title":{"rendered":"Niger\u2019s coup and the international community\u2019s opposition, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of Niger\u2019s presidential guard, with other members of Niger\u2019s armed forces,on Friday declared himself head of a transitional government he called \u201cthe National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland<\/a>,\u201d while international leaders and organizations including the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) strongly condemned the coup.”
…
“It\u2019s the fifth successful military coup in Niger<\/a> since its independence from France in 1960. A series of coups<\/a> has toppled the governments of several African countries over the past three years, but Niger is a bit of an outlier among its neighbors, particularly due to the vociferous support Bazoum\u2019s government has enjoyed. Though Niger, like many other West African nations, had suffered from poor economic growth and stunted democratic and public institutions, Bazoum\u2019s tenure produced improvements in education and public health, as well as the security and economic outlooks compared with neighbors like Mali and Burkina Faso.”   
…
“Tchiani\u2019s claim to power rests on the idea that Bazoum\u2019s government had failed to deal with the violent Islamist extremism that has festered in the region over the past decade. That claim has driven coups elsewhere in the region, such as Mali. Military leaders can present themselves as a strong security alternative in unstable and violent nations, but in the case of Niger, the security situation was actually improving, especially in relation to its neighbors in the Sahel region<\/a> \u2014 the band of north-central Africa stretching from northern Senegal to Sudan.”  
…
“Bazoum had reportedly tried to force Tchiani into retirement, as Daniel Eizenga, a research fellow at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, points out. \u201cThe coup justifications have no foundation to stand on in Niger,\u201d Eizenga said, adding that the power grab seems to be due to \u201cthe egotistical motivations of this individual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Tchiani did not initially have the full support of the armed forces, though he has since commandeered the endorsement of some of Niger\u2019s military leaders. Civilian protests immediately after Tchiani\u2019s takeover insisted that Bazoum be returned to office; however, as Eizenga told Vox, those protests were violently suppressed by the presidential guard, Tchiani\u2019s unit, creating a \u201cchilling effect\u201d against further civilian protest.”
https:\/\/www.vox.com\/world-politics\/2023\/7\/29\/23812389\/niger-coup-africa-ecowas-tchiani-bazoum<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of Niger\u2019s presidential guard, with other members of Niger\u2019s armed forces, on Friday declared himself head of a transitional government he called \u201cthe National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland,\u201d while international leaders and organizations including the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) strongly condemned the coup.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s the fifth successful military coup in Niger since its independence from France in 1960. A series of coups has toppled the governments of several African countries over the past three years, but Niger is a bit of an outlier among its neighbors, particularly due to the vociferous support Bazoum\u2019s government has enjoyed. Though Niger, like many other West African nations, had suffered from poor economic growth and stunted democratic and public institutions, Bazoum\u2019s tenure produced improvements in education and public health, as well as the security and economic outlooks compared with neighbors like Mali and Burkina Faso.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Tchiani\u2019s claim to power rests on the idea that Bazoum\u2019s government had failed to deal with the violent Islamist extremism that has festered in the region over the past decade. That claim has driven coups elsewhere in the region, such as Mali. Military leaders can present themselves as a strong security alternative in unstable and violent nations, but in the case of Niger, the security situation was actually improving, especially in relation to its neighbors in the Sahel region \u2014 the band of north-central Africa stretching from northern Senegal to Sudan.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Bazoum had reportedly tried to force Tchiani into retirement, as Daniel Eizenga, a research fellow at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, points out. \u201cThe coup justifications have no foundation to stand on in Niger,\u201d Eizenga said, adding that the power grab seems to be due to \u201cthe egotistical motivations of this individual.\u201d
\nIndeed, Tchiani did not initially have the full support of the armed forces, though he has since commandeered the endorsement of some of Niger\u2019s military leaders. Civilian protests immediately after Tchiani\u2019s takeover insisted that Bazoum be returned to office; however, as Eizenga told Vox, those protests were violently suppressed by the presidential guard, Tchiani\u2019s unit, creating a \u201cchilling effect\u201d against further civilian protest.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[417,1123,431,167,259,1909],"class_list":["post-11330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-africa","tag-coup","tag-democracy","tag-government","tag-military","tag-niger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11331,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11330\/revisions\/11331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}