Niger’s coup leaders on Thursday said that they had severed military ties with France, their country’s former colonial ruler, throwing into uncertainty the future of 1,500 French troops based there, in a region of West Africa plagued with coups and Islamist insurgencies, reports The New York Times.
The leaders of the coup also dismissed Niger’s ambassadors to France and the United States, another military partner, as well as the ambassadors to Togo and Nigeria, an essential trade partner.
In an extraordinary move, the elected president of Niger, who has been locked up in the presidential palace by his own guards for over a week, wrote an opinion column published in The Washington Post calling on the United States and other allies to help restore constitutional order.
“I write this as a hostage,” President Mohamed Bazoum said in his opinion essay, published on Thursday evening. “Niger is under attack from a military junta that is trying to overthrow our democracy.”
He warned that attacks from jihadist groups could increase and that Russia could expand its influence in the region if the coup leaders remain in power.
The plea came just days before a deadline given by other West African countries in a threat to go to war against the coup leaders, despite skepticism that the nations will take military action.
Under Mr. Bazoum, Niger had been a key security partner to the United States and Europe, hosting more than 2,500 troops from France, the United States and the European Union.
Civilian deaths and political violence in Niger have decreased this year, according to data released by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Niger has fared better against the insurgents than neighbors like Mali, which has contracted with fighters from the Kremlin-backed Wagner private military company, and Burkina Faso, which has moved closer to Russia. Both of those countries were also taken over in military coups.
The mutinous soldiers in Niger flew to Mali this week, and met with the military junta there. The Nigerien junta later said they had also visited Burkina Faso.