Niger’s military leaders shore up support as hundreds rally in the capital – National | 24CA News
Hundreds of individuals rallied in assist of Niger’s ruling junta within the capital on Thursday, denouncing France and others who’ve criticized a latest coup – because the nation’s army leaders sought to use anti-Western sentiment to shore up their takeover.
As numbers started to swell at an illustration organized by the junta and civil society teams on Niger’s independence day, protesters in Niamey pumped their fists within the air and chanted out assist for neighboring international locations which have additionally seen army takeovers lately. Some waved Russian flags, and one man brandished a Russian and Nigerien flag sewn collectively.
Last week’s coup toppled President Mohamed Bazoum – whose ascendency marked Niger’s first peaceable, democratic switch of energy since its independence from France. It has been accompanied by strident anti-French sentiment and raised questions on the way forward for the battle towards extremism in Africa’s Sahel area, the place Russia and Western international locations have vied for affect.
The coup has been strongly condemned by Western international locations and the West African regional bloc referred to as ECOWAS, which has threatened to make use of power to take away the junta in the event that they don’t hand again energy to Bazoum. As tensions have grown within the capital and the area, many European international locations have moved to evacuate their residents.
At Thursday’s protest, many expressed assist for the coup leaders and denounced interference from others.
“For more than 13 years, the Nigerien people have suffered injustices,” mentioned protester Moctar Abdou Issa. The junta “will get us out of this, God willing ? they will free the Nigerien people.”
“We’re sick of the French,” he added.
Supporters or Niger’s ruling junta, collect for a protest referred to as to battle for the nation’s freedom and push again towards overseas interference, in Niamey, Niger, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023.
AP Photo/Sam Mednick
It stays unclear whether or not the vast majority of the inhabitants helps the coup – and in lots of components of the capital, folks went about their lives on Thursday as regular.
In an tackle to the nation on Wednesday, the brand new army ruler, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, lashed out at those that have condemned the coup and referred to as on the inhabitants to be able to defend the nation.
Tchiani mentioned Niger will face troublesome occasions forward and that the “hostile and radical” attitudes of those that oppose his rule present no added worth. He referred to as harsh sanctions imposed final week by ECOWAS unlawful, unfair, inhuman and unprecedented.
The bloc has set a deadline of Aug. 6 for the junta to reinstate Bazoum, who stays underneath home arrest. Its sanctions embrace halting vitality transactions with Niger, which will get as much as 90% of its energy from neighboring Nigeria, in accordance with the International Renewable Energy Agency.
In a closed door assembly on Wednesday, dozens of individuals from civil society organizations, skilled teams and commerce unions spoke with the coup leaders about their imaginative and prescient for the nation.
“We are talking about the immediate departure of all foreign forces,” Mahaman Sanoussi, interim coordinator for M62, an anti-French political alliance that organized Thursday’s protest, informed The Associated Press. “The dignity of the Nigerien people will be respected by all without exception.”
But one other civil society member on the gathering who refused to be named for safety causes informed the AP they left feeling involved. They had a robust impression that the French army was going to be ousted quickly and that members of civil society teams would assist the junta do it.
France has 1,500 troopers in Niger who conduct joint operations with its army towards jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, and the United States and different European international locations have helped practice the nation’s troops. Niger was seen because the West’s final dependable accomplice within the area, however some within the nation see Russia and its Wagner mercenary group, which operates in a handful of African international locations, as a robust various.
The new junta has not mentioned whether or not it intends to ally with Moscow or persist with Niger’s Western companions, however that query has turn out to be central to the unfolding political disaster. Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso _ each dominated by juntas _ have turned towards Moscow.
Even if Niger’s army rulers demand the withdrawal of French troops _ as occurred in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso _ it wouldn’t make a distinction, mentioned Anne-Claire Legendre, a spokesperson for the French overseas minister throughout a press briefing on Wednesday.
“We don’t answer to the putschists. We recognize one constitutional order and one legitimacy only, that of President Bazoum,” she mentioned.
Ahead of Thursday’s demonstration, the French Embassy in Niamey requested Niger’s authorities to take all measures to make sure the safety and safety of its premises after it was attacked by protesters a door was set on fireplace.
The French army mentioned that 5 flights utilizing its planes had evacuated greater than 1,000 folks this week, and France’s Foreign Ministry mentioned Thursday that its evacuation operation has ended.
The State Department on Wednesday ordered what it mentioned was the short-term departure of nonessential embassy employees and a few members of the family from Niger as a precaution. It mentioned its embassy would stay open. Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder mentioned that the State Department had not requested U.S. army help for the departure.
U.S. President Joe Biden used the event of Niger’s independence day to name for Bazoum to be launched and democracy restored.
“The Nigerien people have the right to choose their leaders. They have expressed their will through free and fair elections _ and that must be respected,” he mentioned in a press release Thursday.
Earlier this week, Nigeria reduce off energy transmission to Niger, an official at one in every of Nigeria’s primary electrical energy corporations mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to touch upon the difficulty.
The official didn’t make clear how a lot of Niger’s energy the reduce represented, however any discount would additional squeeze residents within the impoverished nation of greater than 25 million folks the place the electrical energy provide is already unreliable.
On Wednesday, the president’s celebration accused the junta of reducing off electrical energy to his residence since that morning. “As a result, the president of the republic and his family no longer benefit from the rotating supply of energy,” mentioned Kalla Ankourao, the ruling celebration’s basic secretary.
Associated Press writers Zane Irwin in Dakar, Senegal, and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.
