Niger’s military regime and its Russian paramilitary partners put down a mutiny by soldiers after a long and confusing day of fighting around the capital Niamey.
Was this a simple mutiny or an attempted coup? The mutineers never made a public statement, and little information has emerged regarding the extent of their movement and their objective.
Defence Minister Salifou Mody described the mutineers as a “group of soldiers who have broken with military regulations”. Several analysts said these soldiers had served on the front lines of the fight against jihadists in the south-west.
A research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Studies of the International Academy for Counter-Terrorism, this was a simple “uprising” within the army, without outside influence, according to Abdel Nasser Elyessa. The junta sought assistance from its Russian Africa Corps allies, who helped to “suppress the mutiny”, in the words of Russia’s ambassador to Niamey, Viktor Voropaev. To see Russia being called upon to resolve a problem within the military is “unprecedented” and undermines the “sovereignty” rhetoric put forward by the Sahel’s military regimes, said researcher Elyessa. The military junta would now prioritise protecting itself, at the expense of the fight against terrorism, according to him. “In West Africa, military coups are becoming a structural risk,” said Elyessa.
