Military officers in Niger Republic say they have taken over power in the landlocked West African country and removed President Mohamad Bazoum from office.
Late on Wednesday, eight officers led by one Colonel-Major Amadou Adramane appeared on State TV and said the constitution had been suspended and country’s borders closed down.
The soldiers identified security and economic concerns plaguing the country, as reasons for the coup, which has been condemned by the sub-regional body, ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations.
On Wednesday morning, President Bazoum had been detained by soldiers of the Presidential Guard in Niamey and they were warmed to restore constitutional order and guarantee the safety of the country’s democratically elected leader and his family at the sealed-off Presidential Palace.
Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, who was recently elected Chairman of the West African sub-regional body earlier this month, condemned the arrest of President Bazoum and dispatched a delegation, led by his Beninoise counterpart, Patrice Talon to Niamey, the Nigerien capital to engage the coupists.
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President Bazoum was just two years into his five-year term after a failed coup by some military officers in the days leading up to his inauguration attempted to prevent him from assuming office following his election.
This brings to five the number of coups in West Africa in the last three years.
The now-late Aboubacar Keita of Mali was overthrown in 2020 while his interim successor, President Bah N’daw was ousted the next year. In Guinea, President Alpha Conde was removed from office in 2022 just as Marc Roc Kabore of Burkina Faso in January of last year.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
