After more than 48 hours of suspense, the man of the coup in Niger finally revealed his face on national television on Friday noon. Khaki fatigues, two stars on the epaulettes, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the presidential guard who has been detaining the head of state Mohamed Bazoum since Wednesday in his residence in Niamey, spoke to justify his putsch. “The action of the CNSP (Editor’s note: the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland, which overthrew the president) is motivated by the sole desire to preserve our dear homeland in the face of, on the one hand, the continuous deterioration of the security situation in our country – and this without the deposed authorities giving us a glimpse of a real way out of the crisis -, on the other hand to poor economic and social governance”, declared General Tchiani, reading a text.
And to shell, for seven minutes of speech, the list of his grievances against the power of Bazoum. The “deadly and traumatic attacks”, “its share of dead, displaced”, “the inconsistency and ineffectiveness” of the fight against terrorism, the “politician discourse” in the face of insecurity… Like its putschist neighbours, Burkinabé Captain Ibrahim Traoré and Malian Colonel Assimi Goïta, who both invoked the failure of civilian presidents in the face of the spread of jihadism to overthrow them, General Tchiani in turn uses the security argument. A “pretext”, however, believe several sources. “It has become the fashionable narrative in the region which makes it possible to designate enemies and to mobilize behind one”, retorts an analyst.
Security situation under control
Because unlike Mali and Burkina Faso, where jihadist groups have conquered large swaths of territory, Niger is resisting well and truly. Behind the scenes, several security sources rather see behind this putsch, the fifth in the country’s history, corporate and personal reasons. “A stroke of madness from Tchiani, there was talk of dismissing him, he wanted to make people believe in a mutiny, but from the start he wanted power”, castigates a senior officer.
In Niger, a desert country with a territory twice the size of France, the security situation nevertheless remains fragile. Landlocked in the heart of the Sahel, it has to face the pressure of the insurgents of the jihadist group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the fighters of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) on its western front, in the area known as of the three borders shared with Burkina Faso and Mali, but also to the threat of Boko Haram, in its south-eastern part, bordering Lake Chad and Nigeria. On January 9, 2020, 89 soldiers were killed in the attack on the Chinégodar camp, in the Tillabéri region. The attack, the deadliest ever recorded by the army, had created a national stir. This vast region, located in the area of the three borders, is regularly targeted by jihadists, despite the counter-terrorist operations of the Nigerien army and the French who fight alongside them. On July 14, four civilians and a gendarme died in a complex attack on a main road in the area. Faced with the violence, more than 10,000 residents have fled their homes since the beginning of July in the Tillabéri region.
In the Sahel, jihadist groups continue to extend their hold. Especially in Mali and Burkina Faso, where entire areas have fallen under the control of fighters who impose sharia, Islamic law, on villagers. Next door, Niger, a precious ally of France and the United States in the region, has so far been the last island of stability in the midst of these lands troubled by violence and coups.
Way of dialogue
Unlike the Malian and Burkinabé juntas, which are betting on an offensive anti-jihadist struggle, at the risk of aggravating the cycle of revenge, the Niger authorities have chosen the path of dialogue with the armed groups in recent years. A strategy which, for specialists in the region, has proven itself. “The Nigerien exception is linked to its long tradition of dialogue inherited from the successful management of the Tuareg rebellions of the 90s and 2000s”, explains Fahiraman Rodrigue Koné, researcher on the Sahel at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). Since then, several mediations have been initiated by the State and have resulted in peace agreements between communities.
Created in 2017, a de-radicalization center also welcomes former repentant members of Boko Haram. Except that within the army, the “outstretched hand” policy advocated by Mohamed Bazoum has created frustrations among certain officers who are supporters of “all-military”. In his statement on Friday, General Tchiani did not fail to castigate the “extrajudicial release of several terrorist leaders”. At the beginning of 2022, several prisoners had been released at the instigation of Bazoum, as part of the “research for peace”. The last civilian president of the Sahel, who criticized his putschist neighbors, was caught by his own army.