EU and American foreign policy in the Sahel region was turned upside down Wednesday, July 27th, after disgruntled members of the Nigerien military detained the country’s pro-western president Mohamed Bazoum in what appears to be an ongoing coup attempt.
Members of the Presidential Guard arrested President Bazoum and his family inside his palace in the capital Niamey in what is the latest military overthrow of a civilian government in a coup-prone region of West Africa.
According to on-the-ground reporting, the Presidential Guard is now surrounded by troops loyal to Bazoum and negotiations are underway to diffuse the situation. The nation’s national broadcaster has also been seized by mutinying soldiers and Niger’s borders are closed, as the rival factions fight for power.
There is no specific reason as to why the attempted coup occurred, but speculation points to anger at the Bazoum government’s failure to deal with the worsening threat of jihadist insurgency currently ravaging the north and south of Niger.
One of the last pro-western governments in the Sahel, the arrest of President Bazoum has been condemned by the EU, UN, and the United States as well as Niger’s former colonial master France, which still maintains influence in the country.
A major fear for the West now is the potential involvement of Russia or the Wagner mercenary group, which has assisted similar coups in Mali and Burkina Faso to oust pro-western and pro-French regimes.
While the Wagner group has announced, on their social media channel, that they are monitoring the situation, there is no confirmation of direct Russian influence on the coup.
A major supplier of uranium to France, Niger has been an important ally of the U.S. since the outbreak of the War on Terror. The EU has also established a presence in the region, launching a three-year-long military partnership with Niger in February of this year.
The Sahel region is of increasing concern to Western strategists due to the rising tide of Islamist extremism as well as being a key staging area for illegal immigration into Europe. Only this month Niger was described as the “economic engine” of West Africa by the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who praised the country’s strong and stable leadership. Western powers had hoped to use Niger as a rallying point in a region where European and American influence is waning.
Niger has been grappling with an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgency since 2016 triggered by turmoil in neighbouring Mali. The loss of Niger would have profound geopolitical ramifications on the Sahel and vastly reduce the West’s ability to control migration flows and the flow of economically vital raw materials. In addition, it would open up a new front in Russia’s advance in the region, which has relied on growing anti-western sentiment.
