Niger ex-rebel leader launches anti-coup movement in first sign of internal resistance

NIAMEY – A former rebel leader and politician in Niger has launched a movement opposing the

junta that took power in a July 26 coup

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It is the first sign of internal resistance to army rule in the strategically important Sahel country.

Mr Rhissa Ag Boula said in a statement seen on Wednesday that his new Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) aimed to reinstate ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held at his residence since the takeover.

“Niger is the victim of a tragedy orchestrated by people charged with protecting it,” he said.

The CRR supports the Economic Community of West African States, or Ecowas, and any other international actors seeking to restore constitutional order in Niger, it added.

The launch of the anti-coup movement comes as diplomatic efforts to reverse the putsch appeared stalled.

This is after the junta rejected the latest diplomatic mission and the army governments of neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, which back the armed takeover, appealed to the United Nations to prevent any military intervention.

Niger’s coup leaders denied entry to African and UN envoys on Tuesday, resisting pressure to negotiate.

Regional leaders in West Africa are due to meet in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, on Thursday. They will discuss the situation in Niger.

The CRR would make itself available to the bloc for any useful purpose, Mr Ag Boula’s statement said.

A CRR member said several Nigerien political figures had joined the group, but could not make their allegiance public for safety reasons.

Mr Ag Boula played a leading role in uprisings by the Tuareg, a nomadic ethnic group present in Niger’s desert north, in the 1990s and 2000s.

Like many former rebels, he was integrated into government under Mr Bazoum and his predecessor Mahamadou Issoufou.

While the extent of support for the CRR is unclear, Mr Ag Boula’s statement will worry the coup leaders given his influence among the Tuareg, who control commerce and politics in much of the vast north.

Support from the Tuareg would be key to securing the junta’s control beyond the city limits of Niamey, the capital of Niger.

The UN, Western powers and democratic Ecowas member states such as Nigeria want the junta to reinstate a civilian government.

Niger has been a key ally in the global fight against militants in the western Sahel region. 

The country is also the world’s seventh-largest producer of uranium, the most widely used fuel for nuclear energy, adding to its strategic importance.

Complex diplomatic picture

But Mali and Burkina Faso, Ecowas members that have rejected Western allies since their own juntas took power in coups in the past two years, have vowed to defend Niger’s new army rulers from any forceful attempt to remove them.

In a letter to the UN, they called on the Security Council to prevent any armed action against Niger.

They said it would have unpredictable consequences such as the break-up of Ecowas, a humanitarian disaster and a worsening security situation.

Accusing Western powers of using Ecowas as a proxy to conceal a hostile agenda towards Niger, they said they were committed to finding solutions through diplomacy and negotiation.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States backs regional efforts to bring a diplomatic solution to Niger.

His top deputy, Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, travelled to Niamey on Monday for what she described as

“difficult talks” with junta officials about reinstating Mr Bazoum.

Mr Blinken said in an interview on Tuesday with Radio France Internationale that “we are supporting the efforts of” regional leaders “to restore constitutional order in Niger”.

The coup “puts us and many other countries in a position where we have to stop our aid, our support, and this will not benefit the people of Niger.”

Ecowas leaders had given Niger’s military leaders until Sunday to hand back power to Mr Bazoum or face the potential threat of military intervention.

The junta restricted access to the country’s airspace over the weekend, and postponed a visit by an Ecowas mediation delegation scheduled for Tuesday, according to a letter dated Monday.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who currently chairs Ecowas, has ordered additional sanctions on entities and individuals linked to the junta, government adviser Ajuri Ngelale told reporters on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said the President was “unequivocal” about the use of diplomacy and will remain so until Ecowas delivers a different verdict.

The coup in Niger is the sixth in West Africa over the past three years. Ecowas did not threaten to use force to reverse any of the others.

The bloc is likely to ultimately take a similar tack in Niger, Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, a security analyst and director of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, said by phone from the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

“There’s the threat of a military intervention, but we don’t see any sign of troops preparing to deploy,” he said.

The 15-member bloc successfully intervened in Gambia in 2017 to help oust dictator Yahya Jammeh, who refused to step down after an electoral defeat.

That time, there was no violence – Senegalese troops advancing towards the capital, Banjul, were enough to make Jammeh change his mind.

Niger is more than 100 times the size of Gambia, and has close cultural and trade ties to neighbouring Nigeria, which would have to lead any intervention given that it is the region’s most influential country and has its biggest military.

Senators and civil society groups from Nigeria’s north – which borders Niger – have already expressed their opposition to any intervention.

The junta has so far largely ignored the threat.

Niger’s self-declared military leader Abdourahamane Tiani on Monday appointed Mr Ali Lamine Zeine as prime minister, according to a statement read on state broadcaster Tele Sahel.

General Tiani did not meet Ms Nuland, the second-ranking diplomat from the US, which has about 1,000 troops in the country. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG