French embassy in Niger is attacked as protesters waving Russian flags march through capital

Thousands of people backing the coup in Niger marched through the streets of the capital denouncing the country's former colonial power, and setting a door at the French Embassy ablaze on Sunday before the army broke up the crowd.

The Russian mercenary group Wagner is operating in neighbouring Mali, and President Vladimir Putin would like to expand his country's influence in the region. The new junta's leaders have not said whether they would move toward Moscow or stick with Niger's Western partners.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that attacks on France and its interests would not be tolerated and anyone who attacks French citizens will see an immediate response.

Niger, a French colony until 1960, had been seen as the West's last reliable partner battling militants in Africa’s Sahel region. France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with the Nigeriens. The United States and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.

At an emergency meeting on Sunday, the West African bloc known as ECOWAS said that it was suspending relations with Niger, and authorised the use of force if President Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated within a week. The African Union has issued its own 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the democratically elected government.

Shortly after the ECOWAS meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, the President of Chad, Mahamat Deby, arrived in Niger to lead mediation efforts, according to the state radio station in Chad.

ECOWAS has struggled to make a definitive impact on the region’s political crises in the past but Bazoum was democratically elected two years ago in Niger’s first peaceful transfer of power since independence from France in 1960.

Members of the Niger military announced on Wednesday that they had deposed Bazoum and on Friday named Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as the country’s new leader, adding Niger to a growing list of military regimes in West Africa’s Sahel region.

Some leaders of the mutiny said they overthrew Bazoum because he wasn’t able to secure the nation against growing militant violence. But some analysts and Nigeriens say that was a pretext for a takeover driven by internal power struggles.

“We couldn’t expect a coup in Niger because there’s no social, political or security situation that would justify that the military take the power,” Prof Amad Hassane Boubacar, who teaches at the University of Niamey, told The Associated Press.

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He said Bazoum wanted to replace the head of the presidential guard, Tchiani. Tchiani, who also goes by Omar, was loyal to Bazoum's predecessor, and that sparked the problems, Boubacar said.