'Attempted coup' underway in Niger as president Mohamed Bazoum reportedly held by guards

Niger's president says elements of the presidential guard have tried to move against him and that the army will attack if they don’t back down.

The commission of the Economic Community of West African States condemned what it characterised as a coup attempt in the country.

President Mohamed Bazoum’s official account tweeted that some in the presidential guard engaged in an “anti-Republican demonstration” and tried in vain to obtain the support of the other security forces.

The president and his family were doing well, and Niger's army and the national guard were ready to attack if those involved in the revolt didn't change their minds, the tweet said.

It's unclear what ignited the tensions, but streets surrounding the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey, were blocked off on Wednesday, as were some government ministries.

A local journalist at the state broadcaster said there were at least a dozen reinforcements sent from the national guard to the radio station, and some international security forces operating in the country were ordered to be on lockdown.

Someone close to the president who wasn't authorised to speak to the media told The Associated Press that the presidential guard surrounded Bazoum’s house when he and his wife were inside and that negotiations were underway between the parties, she said.

Bazoum was elected president two years ago in the Niger's first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since its independence from France in 1960. The West African nation has seen four coups, and Bazoum thwarted a coup attempt days before he was sworn into office.

His administration has made Niger a key Western partner in the fight against Islamist extremism.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the country in March, seeking to strengthen ties with a part of Africa's Sahel region that had avoided the successful military coups and Russian mercenaries destabilising its neighbours.

While there are unprecedented threats from Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in western Niger, neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have had four coups since 2020, and both are being overrun by extremists.

“Niger and President Bazoum has been the West’s only hope on the Sahel region to contain jihadists and Russia’s rising influence," Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said.

“Western countries have been showering Niger with aid programs, from military to development cooperation. Even if Bazoum survives this, the reputation of Niger among Western policymakers as a stability anchor for the Sahel is damaged.”

The ECOWAS Commission issued a statement on Wednesday saying it "condemns in the strongest terms the attempt to seize power by force and calls on the coup plotters to free the democratically elected president of the republic immediately and without any condition."

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was selected this month as chairman of the regional power bloc ECOWAS, said the 15-nation bloc’s leadership would resist any attempt to unseat Niger's government.

“It should be quite clear to all players in the Republic of Niger that the leadership of the ECOWAS region and all lovers of democracy around the world will not tolerate any situation that incapacitates the democratically elected government of the country,” Mr Tinubu said.

“We will do everything within our powers to ensure democracy is firmly planted, nurtured, well rooted and thrives in our region.”

Security analysts said another coup attempt would worsen regional instability.

“The repeated coups in the Sahel signaled the beginning of a new era: an era of militaries being in control, and the end of what it was a hopeful democracy," Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Morroco-based thinktank the Policy Center for the New South, said.

"As we are seeing in Burkina Faso and Mali, coups did not really address security issues, which was the justification of these coups."

“Military coups are simply bad and send countries concerned backward rather than forward toward stability and (a) prosperous future,” Mr Lyammouri said.

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