“We are here to show the people that we are not happy about this movement going on, just to show these military people that they can’t just take the power like this,” protester Mohammed Sidi said. “We are a democratic country, we support democracy and we don’t need this kind of movement.”
The international community strongly condemned the attempted seizure of power.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to Bazoum on Wednesday afternoon and “expressed his full support and solidarity,” the U.N. spokesperson tweeted.
Earlier, Guterres condemned any effort to seize power by force “in the strongest terms” and called on “all actors involved to exercise restraint and to ensure the protection of constitutional order,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The governments of France and the United States also voiced concern and urged the participating guardsmen to change course. Bazoum’s administration has made Niger a key Western partner in the fight against Islamist extremism in Africa’s Sahel region.
“We strongly condemn any effort to detain or subvert the functioning of Niger’s democratically elected government, led by President Bazoum,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said. “We specifically urge elements of the presidential guard to release President Bazoum from detention and refrain from violence.”
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was selected this month as the ECOWAS Commission’s chairman, said the regional bloc’s leadership would resist any attempt to unseat Niger’s government.
“It should be quite clear to all players in the Republic of Niger that the leadership of the ECOWAS region and all lovers of democracy around the world will not tolerate any situation that incapacitates the democratically elected government of the country,” Tinubu said in a statement he issued in Abuja. “We will do everything within our powers to ensure democracy is firmly planted, nurtured, well rooted and thrives in our region.”
Source: AP