“We will show the whole world that the Nigerien people stand united,” business minister Abdoulaye Seydou told a crowd in Niamey on Wednesday, September 2. “Treason will not break our determination.”
Several thousand people had packed Place de la Concertation to back General Abdourahamane Tiani, the army chief who took power in the 2023 coup. Junta supporters stood with ministers and military officers. The square had been a gathering point four days earlier too: hundreds rallied there on Saturday while fighting shook several sensitive sites across the capital.
Loyalists put down that uprising with help from Russian partners. Tiani himself stayed away from the rally and had made no public remarks since Saturday, though organizers said he sent word thanking the crowd and urging citizens to “report any movement of suspicious persons.”
Who organized it, and what they said
The coalition “Living Forces of the Nation” organized the event, according to Adnkronos. People chanted for Tiani and for the ruling National Council for the Safeguarding of the Homeland, and some wore shirts and caps printed with his face. Others chanted “Niger will not fall.” Africanews reported cries of “down with the imperialists” and Russian flags in the crowd.
General Amadou Ibro, Tiani’s personal chief of staff, said the mutiny’s “sponsors are based abroad.” He rejected the word itself, calling the weekend’s events “an attempt to prevent Niger from continuing its march towards sovereignty.” The junta has long pointed outside the country when it explains its grip on power, arguing that the 2023 takeover was needed to restore Niger’s sovereignty. State television had already aired accusations that France, the former colonial power, was behind the uprising.
The cost of the weekend
The Nigerien news agency ANP counted three presidential guards killed. A civilian died after finding an explosive device, and one more person was hit by gunfire.
Official media said similar rallies were planned in other big cities. Niger has turned away from Paris since the coup, as have its junta-run neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali. All three look to Russia in the fight against jihadist violence across the Sahel, and Moscow’s Africa Corps paramilitaries are now Niger’s main partners on that front.
Sources
- Thousands rally to back Niger authorities after thwarted mutiny
- Niger: thousands in Niamey square, support for Tiani
