Coup in Niger Explained

There was a weary familiarity about the scene late on Wednesday when a rag-tag group of soldiers in mismatching uniforms, calling themselves the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, took to the airwaves to declare that they had overthrown Niger’s elected government.Similar scenes had played out in Mali and Burkina Faso, two of Niger’s neighbours, in recent years. A so-called “coup belt” of countries run by juntas and racked by conflict now stretches all the way from Mali in the west through the Central African Republic and Sudan in the east.Niger was supposed to be different. In 2021, Mohamed Bazoum, a mild-mannered former school teacher, was elected president, cementing the country’s first democratic transition since independence from France in 1960.Bazoum succeeded Mahamadou Issoufou, who unlike many others in the region had departed office after the end of his two constitutional terms — albeit by handing over to Bazoum, his political protégé.