According to political scientist Mbodou Wakil, the current government takeover in Niger is the result of a leadership crisis that cannot be fixed by merely criticizing the parties involved or by foreign military involvement.
Soldiers in Niamey claimed to have deposed Niger’s democratically elected president, announcing on state television late Wednesday that the government had been dissolved due to the country’s deteriorating security.
The presidency of the West African country claimed that several members of President Mohamed Bazoum’s security detail, who were reported to have detained the leader, had engaged in a “anti-republican” movement.
Bazoum, a Western-backed ally in the fight against the Islamic insurgency, agreed with France last year that Paris could move soldiers from Mali to Niger.
Wakil told RT that important unaddressed concerns, such as the failure to eradicate the country of terrorists and officials utilizing democracy to benefit themselves, prompted this week’s apparent sedition.
He stated that “bringing in military forces from foreign countries that are unable to fight terrorism” and then “helping the terrorists to come in” are “real problems” that have been the “motive of this new system of coup d’etat in Syria.”
