Annulling its defence agreements with Washington, the Niamey junta strengthens ties with Moscow and Tehran, Severing military ties with the United States on 16 March, three months after France closed its embassy in Niamey, General Abdourahamane Tiani s Conseil national pour la sauvegarde de la patrie (CNSP) is shifting its security and diplomatic focus away from western powers towards Russia, and to a lesser extent, Iran.
As the security threats multiply and international troops are forced out, the military rulers in the Sahel have equivocated about their commitments to restoring civilian rule
, The promise of electoral contests to restore constitutional and nominally civilian rule will be a key issue across much of West and West-Central Africa this year, and particularly in the continuing battle of wills between Sahelian military regimes and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
After calling regional leaders bluff over military action, Niamey s putschists say they are ready to negotiate, Serious negotiations to take Niger forward from the crisis born of the 26 July coup are at last under way after the Niamey putschists met with the envoys from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) whom they had earlier spurned.
Beyond ignoring military threats and reshuffling the army command, the ruling generals lack a strategy, In another show of insouciance, the Niamey junta named a new team of ministers a few hours before West African leaders met in Abuja on 10 August to discuss how to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum and restore constitutional rule. It has since emerged that the junta leaders had told United States Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland on 7 August that they would kill Bazoum if neighbouring states tried to intervene militarily.