New Delhi/New York/Washington/Moscow/Niamey: The situation in Niger is becoming “worrisome” ever since President Mohamed Bazoum was removed from power and placed under house arrest along with his wife and son on July 26, 2023, and the military declared a power takeover. There are continuing reports about the arrest of several members of the Government too there.
Niger is already facing a complex humanitarian situation. Violence by armed groups — both in the country and its neighbours — has increased concerns over civilian protection, and also aggravated food insecurity. As it is, heavy rains and floods continue across the country. Some 38,000 people were reportedly affected since the beginning of the rainy season that started in June.
The United Nations estimates that more than 370,000 men, women and children are displaced within Niger, which also hosts more than 250,000 refugees — mainly from Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso. There are currently 4.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the country. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated that they expect the number of food-insecure people could reach 3 million by the end of next month. The UN humanitarian partners are struggling with low stocks of supplies, due to the impact of closures of the border and the air space. This situation may affect food assistance for 2.8 million people in the coming months.
The funding situation is also worrisome and the UN’s $584 million humanitarian appeal is currently only 32 per cent funded.
The United States has paused its assistance worth over $100 million to Niger and the US embassy there already completed the ordered departure on August 4, 2023, and also assisted in the departure of around a hundred American citizens on a charter flight that left the country on the same day.
India today issued an advisory for its nationals in Niger, advising them to leave the country as soon as possible in light of the prevailing situation there. “They may bear in mind that airspace is currently closed. When departing through a land border, utmost precautions may be taken to ensure safety and security,” a Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said in New Delhi today, urging all those Indian nationals who have not registered with the Indian Embassy in Niamey, to do so expeditiously.
“Indian nationals can reach emergency contact in the Embassy of India, Niamey at the number +227-9975-9975 for any assistance. We will also be issuing this advisory on our social media platforms shortly,” the MEA spokesperson said, informing that approximately around 250 Indian citizens are estimated to be there.
Recent reports suggest that President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger and his family are living without electricity, water, food or medicine in deplorable living conditions, arbitrarily detained by members of the Presidential Guard. On October 8, 2023, the US Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was in the capital Niamey but was not granted an opportunity to see either the self-proclaimed president, General Abdourahamane Tiani, or President Bazoum. “We asked before we arrived and throughout the day for an opportunity to meet with President Bazoum to get his perspective directly – we’ve talked to him on the phone, but we haven’t seen him – and that was never granted,” she said. So she was left to have to depend on General Moussa Salaou Barmou, the self-proclaimed chief of defence of the operation, “to make clear, again, what is at stake”.
The US has thus far preferred to call the development in Niger an attempted military takeover, rather than a coup, hoping to see President Bazoum released from house arrest and able to resume his duties.
The USA’s concerns also stem from the fact that it operates several military bases in Niger, including in Arlit and Agadez. The Central Intelligence Agency operates a drone base near Dirkou. Besides, Niger is an important partner for the US in the fight against terrorism in West Africa and is a member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
Hence, Nuland was asked by the United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to rush to Niger. “I was in the neighbourhood last week and then in Jeddah – because we wanted to speak frankly to the people responsible for this challenge to the democratic order to see if we could try to resolve these issues diplomatically, if we could get some negotiations going, and also to make absolutely clear what is at stake in our relationship and the economic and other kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored. You have probably seen we have already had to pause our assistance,” she told reporters from Niamey.
Nuland acknowledged that her conversations with General Barmou and three of the colonels supporting him were at times difficult because “we were pushing for a negotiated solution”. She conceded that it was not easy to get traction there. “They are quite firm in their view on how they want to proceed, and it does not comport with the constitution of Niger,” she said. Interestingly, General Barmou, former Colonel Barmou, had worked very closely with U.S. Special Forces over many, many years!
Nuland described her visit as a “difficult mission, but a necessary one from the perspective of American interest in trying to see if this very difficult situation can be solved diplomatically”.
Realising the gravity of the matter, today, US Secretary of State Blinken even spoke with former Nigerien President Mohamed Issoufou, who served as the President of Niger from 7 April 2011 to 2 April 2021 and left power by respecting the Constitution limiting him to two presidential terms thus leading to the first-ever democratic transition of power in the country. Blinken expressed his “grave concern” at the continued unlawful detention under deteriorating conditions of President Bazoum and his family. Blinken shared that he was particularly dismayed by the refusal of those who seized power in Niger to release Bazoum’s family members as a demonstration of goodwill, and assured the former president of the United States’ continued dedication to finding a peaceful resolution that ensures Niger can remain a strong partner in security and development in the region.
Blinken is also in regular touch with President Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu of Nigeria, who is currently head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, and with a number of European allies with whom the US works in Niger, particularly on counterterrorism. Nuland is in touch with a broad cross-section of Nigerien civil society, who the US consider its long-time friends including journalists, democratic activists, and human rights activists. “A number of them I had met on previous trips, as had the Secretary. And so we had a frank exchange about the situation here,” she said.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres as well as the USA have extended their full support to the ongoing mediation efforts by ECOWAS, which met on August 10 in Nigeria. But what has compounded the problem is ECOWAS’s threat earlier on July 30, 2023, to use force in Niger if President Bazoum was not restored in a week. Reacting to this, the military leaders of both Burkina Faso and Mali said that they would consider this an act of war. Significantly, while the final statement from the ECOWAS Summit on August 10, called for the restoration of Constitutional order in Niger, and warned that they would activate the standby force, reports earlier out of Niger on the same day quoted the coup authorities saying that if there was any military intervention, they would potentially kill President Bazoum.
The United States joined the ECOWAS in calling for the restoration of constitutional order in Niger, and Blinken said like ECOWAS, the United States will hold the Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) – the ruling military junta of Niger – accountable for the safety and security of President Bazoum, his family, and detained members of the government.
However, stepping into the picture, USA’s arch-rival Russia warned that an intervention by the troops of the ECOWAS in a sovereign state was unlikely to contribute to the achievement of lasting peace in Niger or the stabilisation of the subregion. “In this context, we note the negative reaction to this scenario from a number of states bordering Niger, including Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Algeria. We hope that mutually acceptable solutions can be found through ECOWAS’s diplomatic efforts in Niger,” Russia’s Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department Alexey Zaitsev, told journalists in Moscow on August 9, 2023.
While supporting the mediation efforts undertaken by the African community to help the people of Niger overcome the crisis, Zaitsev said Russia was following the developments in Niger “with concern”. He emphasised there was no alternative to the restoration of law and order and the start of an inclusive national dialogue as soon as possible. “We consider it extremely important to prevent further escalation of tension in Niger,” he asserted. He said the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland created by the military had initiated the process of forming a new government.
Washington, meanwhile, apprehends the Russian Wagner Group potentially taking advantage of the situation in Niger even as it clarifies that it did not see any role by Wagner in the instigation of this attempted takeover, and any Wagner military presence as of yet in Niger. However, what makes the USA suspicious were the comments that Wagner boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin made when he publicly was celebrating the events in Niger.
Volker Türk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, today said that he was extremely concerned about the rapidly deteriorating conditions in which President Bazoum, his wife and his son have been arbitrarily detained. He said that he received credible reports that the conditions of detention could amount to inhuman and degrading treatment, in violation of international human rights law. And he added that those responsible for the detention of the President must ensure the full respect and protection of his human rights and of all others being held.
– global bihari bureau
