Niger: Protectives of the president fire warning bullets to disperse protesters

President Mohamed Bazoum’s supporters were scattered by warning shots fired by the presidential guard responsible for the attempted coup d’état in Niger on Wednesday in Niamey.

When these bullets were fired, the protesters were attempting to reach the White House, where Mohamed Bazoum was being detained by the presidential guard.

It is now unknown if the injured protester was struck by a bullet or collapsed during the stampede that followed the gunshot.

Following the breakdown of negotiations over unresolved issues, members of the presidential guard have been holding Mohamed Bazoum since Wednesday morning.

President Mohamed Bazoum’s mansion and offices in the capital city of Niger, Niamey, were shut off on Wednesday by disgruntled members of his special guard after discussions broke down.

Nigeria’s Tinubu said Talon was traveling to Niger because of the “military misbehavior” there. As the new leader of the regional organization ECOWAS, Tinubu has advocated for a restoration to democracy in West African nations currently ruled by juntas.

In the meantime, Niger’s president is being held by his guards in what appears to be a coup attempt, and Patrice Talon of Benin is going there to intervene, according to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president of Nigeria.

Since achieving independence from France in 1960, the political climate in Niger has been consistently unstable.

In its history, there have been four coups, the most recent of which was the overthrow of President Mamadou Tandja in February 2010.

The first democratic transfer of power in the nation’s history occurred in 2021 when Mohamed Bazoum assumed the presidency after his predecessor resigned voluntarily.

Niger is contending with a jihadist insurgency that started in Mali in 2012 and extended across the area’s relatively permeable borders, along with Sahelian neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso.

The capital is now just 100 kilometers away from where terrorists with ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are fighting.