NIAMEY, Niger — Members of Niger’s presidential guard surrounded the presidential palace Wednesday in what African organizations called an attempted coup against the country’s democratically elected leader. The U.S. said the rebelling soldiers had detained President Mohamed Bazoum.
A tweet from the account of Niger’s presidency reported that members of the elite guard unit engaged in an “anti-Republican demonstration” and unsuccessfully tried to obtain support from other security forces. It said Bazoum and his family were doing well but that Niger’s army and national guard “are ready to attack” if those involved in the action did not back down.
However, the commissions of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States described the events in Niger’s capital as an effort to unseat Bazoum, who was elected president two years ago in the nation’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since its independence from France in 1960.
The governments of France and the United States also voiced concern and urged the participating guardsmen to change course. Bazoum’s administration has made Niger a key Western partner in the fight against Islamist extremism in Africa’s Sahel region.
“We strongly condemn any effort to detain or subvert the functioning of Niger’s democratically elected government, led by President Bazoum,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said. “We specifically urge elements of the presidential guard to release President Bazoum from detention and refrain from violence.”
Streets surrounding the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey, were blocked off Wednesday, as were some government ministries. In the early evening, hundreds of people chanting “No coup d’etat” marched in support of the president. Multiple rounds of gunfire that appeared to come from the presidential palace dispersed the demonstrators and sent people scrambling for cover, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
An NBC News reporter in the capital heard the sound of gunshots Wednesday afternoon while standing on a hotel rooftop.
“We are here to show the people that we are not happy about this movement going on; just to show these military people that they can’t just take the power like this,” protester Mohammed Sidi said. “We are a democratic country, we support democracy and we don’t need this kind of movement.”
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, “We strongly condemn any effort to detain or subvert the functioning of Niger’s democratically elected government, led by President Bazoum. We specifically urge elements of the presidential guard to release President Bazoum from detention and refrain from violence.”
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was selected this month as the ECOWAS Commission’s chairman, said the regional 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,” Tinubu said in a statement he issued in Abuja. “We will do everything within our powers to ensure democracy is firmly planted, nurtured, well rooted and thrives in our region.”
After meeting with Tinubu in Abuja, President Patrice Talon of Benin left for Niger as part of ECOWAS-led mediation efforts. “I believe that all means will be used, if necessary, to restore constitutional order in Niger, but the ideal would be for everything to happen in peace and harmony,” Talon said.
The African Union also called on Nigerians and Africans to “join their voices in unanimous condemnation of this coup attempt, and for the immediate and unconditional return of the felon soldiers to their barracks.”
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,” said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Morocco-based think tank. “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,” Lyammouri said.