Internal opposition confronts Niger’s military regime

Rhissa Ag Boula, a former minister in the recently deposed government of Niger, has started a resistance movement in an effort to reverse the July 26 coup and restore President Mohamed Bazoum.

In a statement on Wednesday, Boula declared the creation of the Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR), calling for the reinstatement of the rule of law and the detention of General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of the new military regime.

The politician said, “Niger was the victim of a tragedy planned by those who are still in charge of keeping it.”

The initiative represents the first domestic resistance to the military takeover, which has seen military authorities hold Bazoum and his family at their home for the previous two weeks.

The administration that was imposed during a coup in Niger had the support of thousands of citizens. The neighbouring nations of Mali and Burkina Faso have also declared their support for the new administration and cautioned regional and international powers against military intervention.

The CRR, on the other hand, has said that it supports initiatives to reinstate the constitutional validity and guarantee Bazoum’s complete return to duty.

The statement read, “The CRR warns that it will take all necessary means to eliminate this perfidious practise of questioning the choices of peoples by crooked and irresponsible soldiers.”

The CCR movement started when the coup leaders disobeyed ECOWAS directives to hand over control within a seven-day window that ended last Sunday. According to authorities last week, the threat to use force by the bloc is still on the table but will only be used as a last resort.

In defiance of international pressure to engage in negotiations, the Sahel nation’s new leaders on Tuesday refused entry to a joint ECOWAS, African Union, and UN delegation.

Even though ECOWAS defence officials finalised a strategy for a military intervention in Niger last Friday, it is unclear what the organisation would do now that diplomatic efforts to negotiate with the coup leaders have failed.

To debate potential crises resolutions, the bloc will convene on Thursday.

Along with the ECOWAS economic sanctions, a number of allies have stopped providing Niamey with development aid, notably France, Germany, and the US.

The CCR on Wednesday invited individuals of “good will” to join it in its “fight” against “mutiny.” Boula, a member of the nomadic Tuareg ethnic group who oversaw rebel bands in uprisings in Niger in the 1990s and 2000s, made the appeal.