Niger Coup Leaders Detain Ministers, Party Officials

Coup leaders in Niger on Monday arrested several ministers and senior members of the party of detained President Mohamed Bazoum, dealing a blow to efforts by African nations to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis that has shaken one of the U.S.’s main counterterrorism allies as Russia’s African allies declared their support for the junta.

Among those arrested were oil minister Mahamane Sani Mahamadou —the son of Bazoum’s predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou —and Mining Minister Ousseini Hadizatou as well as Foumakoye Gado, president of the executive committee of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, said people familiar with the arrests.

The country’s interior, defense and transport ministers were arrested last week, the people said.

“The aim of the arrests was to decapitate the [NPDS] to avoid the organization of mass protests,” said a senior member of Bazoum’s party. “They also want to use them as hostages in case of military intervention.”

The arrests are bound to complicate efforts by the African leaders—supported by Washington and Niger’s former colonial power France—to restore Bazoum to power. At stake is how much the U.S. can continue its military involvement in Niger, a key American hub for counterterrorism operations and drone flights between Libya, Mali and Nigeria.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department said that it didn’t believe last week’s coup had succeeded yet. Were the State Department to determine a coup successfully took place, U.S. laws would restrict American defense aid to Niger. The U.S. has spent more than $500 million equipping and training Niger’s military since 2012, and the country hosts American commandos who have advised Nigerien special forces during combat missions against local affiliates of al Qaeda and Islamic State. Around 1,100 U.S. troops are currently stationed in Niger.

Neighboring Nigeria and other West African countries are considering using military force to return the president to power. A senior State Department official declined to say whether the U.S. supported an intervention by the African nations, saying it’s a tricky question in part because an attack on Niger’s presidential guard could endanger Bazoum.

At an emergency summit on Sunday, leaders from the Economic Community of West African States said they would give Niger’s military junta, which is led by Gen. Omar Tchiani, the head of the presidential guards, one week to back down. Failing that, the leaders of the group, known as Ecowas, said they would take more forceful measures, including a possible military intervention, to return Bazoum to power.

The West African leaders also announced a string of painful financial and trade sanctions, including the suspension of the sale of electricity and fuel to Niger and freezing the country’s reserves at the regional central bank.

But the bloc’s decision is facing opposition from other military leaders in the region who also came to power through coups and are now siding with Russia. In a joint statement late Monday, Burkina Faso and Mali, which are led respectively by Capt. Ibrahim Traore and Col. Assimi Goïta, said they had agreed to support the Niger junta. They said they would assist the coup plotters in Niamey if they were attacked. “Any military intervention against Niger will be considered as a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali,” their joint statement said.

On Saturday, the European Union and France said they had suspended financial support for Niger’s government, amounting to several hundred million dollars a year, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that U.S. assistance to the country was in jeopardy.

French officials said Monday that they hoped that the concerted economic and political pressures could persuade the Nigerien Armed Forces to renounce their support for the rebellion led by Niger’s presidential guard and its leader, Tchiani.

Having a military-led government in Niger poses great risks to powerful West African nations such as Nigeria, which shares a roughly 1,000-mile border with Niger, as well as the U.S. and Europe. All three have worked closely with Bazoum’s government and Niger’s military to fight Islamist militants in the Sahel region, the semiarid strip south of the Sahara.

The EU also relies on Niger to stop West African migrants from crossing into Libya and from there to Europe.

U.S. and European officials are concerned that the military junta could pursue close ties to Moscow, as several of Niger’s neighbors, including Mali and Burkina Faso, did after coups there deposed elected presidents.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday called for “the rapid restoration of the rule of law in the country and for restraint from all parties so that this doesn’t result in human casualties.”

In one round of shuttle diplomacy that didn’t appear to yield immediate results,

The Chadian government said that the aim of Deby’s visit was “avoid open conflict and isolation of the country at all costs.” It also warned that terrorist groups in the Sahel would benefit from the crisis if it continues.

—Noemie Bisserbe and Will Mauldin contributed to this article.

Write to Benoit Faucon at [email protected] and Gabriele Steinhauser at [email protected]

Corrections & Amplifications
Benoit Faucon and Gabriele Steinhauser reported this article. An earlier version incorrectly listed Drew Hinshaw in the byline and excluded Gabriele Steinhauser. Separately, Foumakoye Gado is president of the executive committee of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism. An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled his name Fourmakoye Gado. (Corrected on July 31)