Thousands gathered at a stadium in Niger’s capital Niamey in a purported support to the military coup that led to the overthrow of democratically-elected President Mohamed Bazoum last week. The regional bloc ECOWAS — Economic Communities of West African States — had threatened an ‘intervention’ if President Bazoum was not reinstated by country’s new rulers within a week, a deadline that has now passed at the time of filing this report.
Analysts in the western media say that a military intervention by ECOWAS is unlikely. This is because on August 5, Nigeria’s senate rejected President Bola Tinubu’s request for a such intervention in Niger.
The seventh coup in West and Central Africa in three years has rocked the western Sahel region, one of the poorest in the world, which has become a big power-playground with the US, France and Russia aiming to assert their influence due to rich uranium deposits in the region.
Niger holds the world’s seventh-largest Uranium deposits. In 2019 only, about 2,982 tonnes of uranium was produced by the two operating mines of the country.
What people of Niger think of ongoing crisis?
A Reuters report on August 6 said that in the capital Niamey’s central stadium, where organisers led chants of ‘Vive Niger’, much of the public emotion was directed against ECOWAS as well as former colonial power France, which said on Saturday it would support regional efforts to overturn the coup.
“The Nigerien people have understood that these imperialists want to bring about our demise. And God willing, they will be the ones to suffer for it,” a pensioner Amadou Adamou was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Last week, thousands of people were seen demonstrating in front of the French embassy in Niamey where the they reportedly shouted “Long live Putin” and “Down with France” slogans.
Also watch | Will ECOWAS resort to force in Niger?
Meanwhile, the military-regimes in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have promised that they will com to Niger’s defence if needed.
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